In this video the lecturer is talking about what role scientific reasoning – thinking in mathematical scientific ways – has in gaming in MMO games. In a study she conducted the following scientific practices were gleaned from AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) standards and divided into three categories.
These standards where then used to analyse over 200 forum posts and these are the results;
In the lecture she expounds each of the above habits of mind. One of the most amazing results was the 1% mathematical computation that was exemplified with this impressive spreadsheet:
The last category of tacit epistemology was interesting. The three minds of the absolutist, relativist and the evaluative. Data was then presented showing that WoW gamers have a much higher percentage of evaluative thinkers than the general public, and many less absolutists. This makes me think of the inquiry based learning book I am reading at the moment. Inquiry based learning requires people to be evaluative thinkers. Student creative content as apposed to teacher/expert content is another important aspect of modern learning that can foster evaluative thinkers.
