EDUCATION
2010. Ph.D. Educational Technology/Learning Sciences, College of Education, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
1995. B.A. Studio Art, Reed College, Portland, OR
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2010-Present. Post-doctoral Scholar, UW Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, University of Washington
Center for Game Science Engage Program, DARPA/ONR
Documenting the informal learning pathways of players as they navigate through science and math games (Foldit, Refraction, etc.).
Educurious initiative, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Designing and test piloting project-based, high-school curricula for introductory English, biology, and algebra that use social media and games.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
2007-2010. Research Assistant, Everyday Science & Technology Group, LIFE Center, University of Washington
Analyzed video and wrote ethnographic accounts of learning across school and home settings for upper-elementary and middle-school children, especially as they engaged in informal gaming practices.
Summer 2008. Member of DNI Summer Hard Problem Program 2008 studying “3D Cyber Space Spillover: Where Virtual Worlds Get Real.”
Assisted in discussions and debates and prepared an analytic product for the Intelligence Community.
Winter 2004. Research Assistant, College of Education, University of Washington
Worked with William Winn defining a protocol for analyzing chat sessions in an online virtual environment.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2005-2008. Instructor, Teacher Education Program (Stephen Kerr, supervisor), University of Washington
Redesigned and taught the technology class for Masters in Teaching students.
Worked with colleagues to incorporate technology use into everyday practice with the rest of the Teacher Education Program.
Spring 2005. Research Assistant, Human Centered Design & Engineering, University of Washington
Helped professor Beth Kolko design a new course on Technology and Society.
DESIGN EXPERIENCE
2007-2008. Web / Flash Consultant, Dangerous Decibels, Oregon Health & Science University
Winter 2004. Usability Testing Consultant, Microsoft, Seattle, WA
Conducted eye-tracking studies for Microsoft Downloads.
2003-2004. Graduate Assistant, Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology, University of Washington
Assessed websites of U.S. educational institutions for accessibility.
2000-2003. Game Designer, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
Developed educational mini-games for exhibit kiosks drawing on vast knowledge of the conventions of commercial computer games.
Exhibits include: Moneyville (Get Real and Lemonade Stand), Hanford at the Half-life (Radiation Calculator), Dangerous Decibels (Save Your Ears), Engineer It!, Explore Technology (Color Mixing), and Animation (Squash and Stretch).
Created / tested user interface prototypes and wrote / refined design docs for all projects.
Supervised and coordinated art, video, audio, and programming teams for multiple projects.
1998-2000. Webmaster, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
Redesigned entire website with a focus on accessibility and scalability.
Maintained multiple back-end databases to manage the content of the website.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Reviewer for Games and Culture, Transformative Works and Cultures, and Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Reviewer for Nordic DiGRA 2012, GLS 2012, CHI 2012 serious games competition, AERA 2011+2012, SIGGRAPH 2011 games studies track, Foundations for Digital Games (FDG) 2011, and International Communications Association (ICA) Games Division 2010
Panelist in Innovations in Education, Working Weekend mini-conference (2012), run by alumni of Reed College for current students
Mentor for a supervision match at Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) 2011.
Chair for Chen, M., Bricker, L., Duncan, S., Reynolds, R., and Wolfenstein, M. (2011). Socially situated expert practice in and around gaming. Symposium at American Educational Research Association (AERA), New Orleans, LA.
Discussant for Wolfenstein, M., McKnight, J. C., and Malaby, T. (2010). Governance in games. Panel at Games Learning Society 6.0, Madison, WI.
OTHER EXPERIENCE
Community Volunteer Curator, Asian American Arcade exhibit (2012), Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience
Fellow, Digital Media and Learning Summer Institute 2011
Mentor, Peer-to-peer Mentoring Program, College of Education (2008-2010)
Officer of Educators for Social Justice, College of Education (2008-2009), Member (2003-2010)
Officer of Associated Students of the College of Education (2006-2008), Member (2006-2010)
Committee Member, Critical Gaming Project (2008-2010)
Guild Master, World of Warcraft, Silver Hand (2004-2005), Officer (2005-2007)
Blogger since 2000, computer gamer since 1984 (IBM XT), tabletop gamer since 1981 (D&D)
PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS
A list of publications and such are found on my Writings page.
A portfolio of artwork and game design (some of them quite dated :) ) can be found on my Portfolio page.
Hi, my name is Ben lee,
I just found your webpage pretty randomly on the web, and I feel like I’m about to try and go on the same path that you are, dealing with game development.
I’m currently a 5th year senior at Seattle University pursuing a double major in Visual Art and Graphic Design. Kind of similar to what you got for your BA I guess.
Over the winter, I was working on a personal website to try and put up an online portfolio with dreamweaver 8, but I since i haven’t done Macromedia Flash for more than 5 years, (2001 the last time I did it), I’m trying to get it back starting today.
Even today, I’m a hardcore video gamer and MMORPG player. I was once gonna apply to Digipen in Redmond, but that wasn’t till my sophomore year at SU, but I heard the odds of getting in are slim.
My advisor at Seattle U said he has a good friend who works as a game tester at Microsoft, and I thought about maybe doing some game testing at either Nintendo or Microsoft after graduating, but I also heard that anyway can do that position and you can’t learn anything.
So anyway, I thought about trying to learn game design and 3d animation when i get out, but do you know of any in seattle? I heard the art institute and cornish rip you off, but i’m looking for a less expensive school after my BA.
I really like the route that you’ve taken, according to your professional experience, and I hope I can one day, become like you.
Please e-mail me back if you ever got the time to. Take care!
I would be interested in receiving a copy of your paper:
Chen, M., Kolko, B., Cuddihy, E., and Medina, E. (2005). “Modeling and Measuring Engagement in Computer Games,” DIGRA 2005, June, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Thank you
Nadia
After some emails with Nadia, it’s come to my attention that DiGRA doesn’t have references to the presentation about engagement on their website anymore! I just sent them an email to figure out what is up.
Truth to tell, we never finished the paper but presented anyway. Maybe I should remove the reference? What a way to reinforce this impostor syndrome I suffer from. :p
(I also just edited this page to link to my Papers page instead of trying to keep both pages updated…)
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