I am an educational researcher studying massively multiplayer online games (MMOs or virtual worlds) from a learning sciences & new literacy studies perspective. I’m especially interested in what young adults learn from online play. I am currently an Assistant Professor [vita] at the University of Wisconsin-Madison & teach courses on virtual worlds, research methods, and the “smart” side of pop culture

I lead a research team of graduate students (and undergrad volunteers), funded by MacArthur Foundation, that investigates the forms of culture & cognition that arise in online games such as World of Warcraft, RuneScape, or Lineage ][. Current studies focus on: informal science, digital & print literacy, computational literacy, collective problem solving, distributed apprenticeship, and pop cosmopolitanism.

This work is part of a larger UW-Madison initiative called the “Games, Learning & Society” (GLS) group that studies how young people engage in meaningful ways with new forms of interactive digital media, ranging from console games to mobile devices to fantasy baseball to you tube to 3D virtual worlds. As part of this initiative, I chair the annual GLS Conference, hosted every summer here in Madison WI.

Blog Posts

its GUYS not BOYS, I stand corrected O_O

There, its done. No more talk of boys. I have been corrected by my guys and they are hereby… guys. Or lads maybe. Fellas? Gents, chaps, dudes, joes, hombres.
But not boys. O_O

Posted by Constance at 8am, Tuesday 21 Oct 08 to After-School Programs | no comments | read

open recruitment @ after school online games program

We’re looking for middle-school and high-school boys (ages 13-17) to join us in an experimental after school program using World of Warcraft that targets (digital & print) literacy for boys. We game together regularly on weeknights & weekends, and we meet face-to-face on the UW-Madison campus in the GLS game lab one Saturday a month. [...]

Posted by Constance at 5pm, Wednesday 15 Oct 08 to After-School Programs | no comments | read

Contact

Constance Steinkuehler
gmail . twitter . facebook . flickr

528D Teacher Education Building
225 North Mills Street
Madison WI 53706

608.263.4669 (office)
608.554.0041 (skype)