Constance Steinkuehler

Constance Steinkuehler

Steinkuehler at the 2015 Game Developers Conference's 1ReasonToBe panel
Born Constance Anne Steinkuehler
Fields Education
Game-based learning
Literacy
Institutions University of Wisconsin–Madison
Office of Science and Technology Policy
Alma mater University of Missouri, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Doctoral advisor James Paul Gee
Known for Game-based learning
Spouse Kurt Squire

Constance Anne Steinkuehler is an American professor of education and game-based learning at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. From 2011 to 2012 she took public service leave and worked as a Senior Policy Analyst in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at the White House Executive Office, advising on policy matters about video games and learning.[1]

Education

Steinkuehler graduated from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, with three bachelor's degrees (mathematics, English, and religious studies) in 1993. After graduating she held a number of teaching jobs, including as a sign language instructor, a high school substitute teacher in the Jefferson City School District in Jefferson City, Missouri, and a chemistry grader at the University of Missouri.

She earned a master of science degree in educational psychology with a focus on cognitive science in 2000 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2005 she received her Ph.D. in literacy studies, also from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her doctoral thesis was on "Cognition & Learning in Massively Multiplayer Online Games". Her advisor was linguistics and literacy scholar James Paul Gee.[2]

Research

After earning her doctorate, she remained in Madison to teach at the University of Wisconsin as an associate professor of digital media and teaches classes on "videogames, research methods, and the 'smart' side of pop culture" (or "pop cosmopolitism") in Curriculum and Instruction Department.[3]

Steinkuehler is a founding fellow of the Games+Learning+Society (GLS) and chairs the annual Games, Learning & Society Conference held each summer in Madison, Wisconsin.[4] In 2009, she served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Games. She was also in a pilot TV show called Brain Trust.[5] The show was piloted in 2008 and featured a team of thought leaders working collaboratively to solve seemingly unsolvable problems.

Steinkuehler runs a research lab with doctoral and undergraduate students, investigating forms of cognition and cultural practices as they relate to gameplay and learning. The group focuses largely on online game communities and fandoms. They take a sociocultural approach to their research, using mixed methods, including ethnographic work and experimental research.[6]

From 2007 to 2009, Steinkuehler ran a casual learning lab for at-risk adolescent boys, largely from rural areas. They were considered to be disengaging from or failing school, particularly in subjects related to literacy. Her lab experiments focused on comparing gaming and school contexts in order to figure out how to leverage the boys' interest in games toward productive literacy practices.[7]

In 2010 Steinkuehler received a $350,000 research grant from the MacArthur Foundation for "Adolescent Online Games and Reading". The grant enabled her to investigate the nature, function, and quality of texts that are a regular part of online gaming, how reading performance of adolescents on such game-related texts compares to performance on school-related texts, as well as the factors that contribute to such differences (e.g., prior knowledge, strategy, persistence, choice), and how game-related reading activities are situated within (or against) children's everyday literacy networks across contexts, including both school and home. She has also received funding from the Spencer Foundation and worked with James Paul Gee on an additional project funded by the MacArthur Foundation, called "A Productive Approach To Learning & Media Literacy Through Videogames & Simulations".[2]

Public service

From 2011 to 2012 she took public service leave and worked as a Senior Policy Analyst in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at the White House Executive Office. Specifically, she helped coordinate cross-agency efforts to leverage games toward national priority areas including childhood obesity, early literacy, and STEM education, and helped forge new partnerships to support an ecosystem of innovation. Furthermore, she played a key role in meetings through the Vice President’s office on the controversial debate over videogames and violence.

Personal life

Steinkuehler is married to Kurt Squire, Creative Director at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery,[8] and also a Professor at University of Wisconsin–Madison's Educational Communications and Technology Division.[9] He also serves as the Director of the Games, Learning & Society Group.

Select publications

Steinkuehler has acted as an author or editor on four different books and has contributed chapters to eight other book titles. Additionally, she has published more than 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals in areas ranging from cognition to education to technology.[2]

Some selected works can be found below:

References

  1. ↑ "Constance Steinkuehler". Website.education.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  2. 1 2 3 Constance Steinkuehler. "CV" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  3. ↑ "UW-Madison - Department of Curriculum and Instruction". Education.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  4. ↑ Games, Learning, and Society Conference Archived June 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ "BRAIN TRUST on Vimeo". Vimeo.com. 2008-10-02. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  6. ↑ "Constance Steinkuehler » The PopCosmo Research Team". Website.education.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  7. ↑ Steinkuehler, C. & King, B. (2009). Digital literacies for the disengaged: Creating after school contexts to support boys' game-based literacy skills. On the Horizon, 17(1), 47-59.
  8. ↑ "Discovery Home - Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery". Discovery.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-22.
  9. ↑ "UW-Madison - Department of Curriculum and Instruction". Education.wisc.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-22.

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