Abstract: Last year, a study sponsored by the US Department of Education took a close, scientific look at the effects of technology in education. The study included 140 schools, 439 teachers, almost 10,000 students, and 16 software products (12 of which had won awards) aimed at improving students' learning of reading and math. The bottom line? Students who used the technology were no better off than those who didn't. A recent call for proposals from the Institute of Educational Sciences suggested that the remedy for this problem could be ... video games.

In this talk, I'll start by summarizing empirical studies of how people learn. Then I will describe two typical technological approaches for improving learning. The rest of the talk will focus on how computer games might provide a win for education, and the types of research needed to back that up.

Short Bio: Peter is an associate professor in the School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems at DePaul University. His research projects involve intelligent tutoring for research methods and natural language processing. He teaches courses in computer science, human-computer interaction, and introductory statistics.