Location-based augmented reality games offer an opportunity to create a ‘‘post-progressive’’ pedagogy in which students are not only immersed in authentic scientific inquiry, but also required to perform in adult scientific discourses.

Inter-related technological, social, and cultural
changes are changing the demands on our educational
system.

Traditional schools and classrooms may be the
only place where such information resources are not fully accessible, in part because schools are based on the historic literacies of print and have not adapted to the literacies of multi-modality and interactive technology (Kress, 2003; Lankshear and Knobel, 2001; New London Group, 2000)

As Leander and Lovvorn (in press) argue, even ‘‘high tech’’ schools operate accordingly to an underlying cultural logic of ‘‘print-based’’ literacies and pedagogies in which teachers determine learning goals, sanction resources, and dictate what steps students ought to take to complete assignments (cf. Lemke, 1990)

Leander and Lovvorn contrast this constellation of school-based literacy practices with kids’ practices on the Internet outside of school, where kids interact with multimodal texts, produce as well as consume texts and resources, and, perhaps most critically, embrace epistemologies radically different from those underlying
schooling (what is ‘‘true’’ is what works in experience or is the consensus of a community, as opposed to appeals to authority—what the teacher dictates as correct).

Can we create pedagogies that capitalize on
these new literacies and prepare students for life in
the 21st century?

the necessity of building a literate populace is vitally important, as we prepare students to think critically in an ever changing world of multiple media (Kuhn, 1999;
Lemke, 1998)

Recent debates around the teaching of evolution, cloning, genetic engineering, stem cell research, and global warming suggest the importance of not just ‘‘teaching kids the facts,’’ but also developing scientific literacy skills so that they may navigate the scientific issues that face society

scientific breakthroughs in fields such nanotechnology that did not exist 50 years ago underscore the importance of preparing both for today’s world and for tomorrow’s.

they need literacy skills to make meaning
with multiple representational forms (including
printed word, charts, graphs, visualizations, and
simulations), robust conceptual understandings with
which to think, and, perhaps most crucially, the
ability to critique scientific arguments (Kuhn, 1999;
Lemke, 1990).

the underlying cultural models and norms of science classrooms ultimately serve to mystify science, rather than initiate students in a discourse where they are ‘‘doing’’ and talking science

Within most classrooms, rather than inquiry, the
dominating activity system of schooling, with its
emphasis on order, control, grades, and hierarchy,
characterizes the activities of students and teachers
(cf. Squire et al., 2003b).

not only do most inquirybased activities fail to produce authentic scientific inquiry, but they engender inaccurate epistemological beliefs about science

to remind us that at least one major goal of education is to graduate students with an awareness of how science operates, preparing them better to engage in democratic decision making around issues such as global warming, evolution, genetic engineering, and so on).

Chinn and Malhotra recognize that ‘‘actual’’ inquiry is difficult to carry out in most school settings, given the reality of most schools, which includes the structure of the school day, constrained resources, and of course, students’ limited experience in science.

advocates of game-based approaches have sought to combine socio-cultural approaches to learning with the affordances of contemporary computer and video games,
which are comprised of mixtures of open-ended and
closed ended problems (cf. Gee, 2003; Lave and
Wenger, 1991; Shaffer, 2005; Steinkuehler, 2006b;
Squire, 2002, Squire, in press).

a core feature of educational game play may include: cycles of making choices, experiencing consequences, interpreting the game system, building casual narratives of experience, having multiple experiences within the system, and then building a cognitive model of the game system as a result (Squire, 2005a; Squire, in press)

If the goal of schooling is not to prepare students for life, but engagement with it (cf. Dewey, 1938), perhaps professional role playing games (frequently called epistemic games) can expand the number of roles available to students in school.

Such an approach could avoid trappings of inquiry-based learning approaches built on the traditional school disciplines; whereas basic fields are driven by theoretical questions, applied fields (such as medicine, environmental engineering, or public health) are often driven by practical ones, opening new opportunities for problem solving (e.g.,
could a swimmer die from ingesting too much mercury?).

Such an approach could enable students to
engage in productive forms of thinking and problem
solving that are frequently engaging to students and
socially valued.

Students engaged in more sophisticated reading practices which increased their success in building coherent arguments

They readily adopted and disregarded explanations as new evidence arose

comparing evidence and integrating them into an overarching narrative

regularly returned to prior pieces of evidence, reading each interview and document 3–4 times by the end of the game in an effort to piece together the most coherent narrative

The groups regularly quizzed each other on
the content of their passages, asking if they found
particular pieces of information or asking one another to review the general ‘‘gist’’ of the documents

older students engaged in more rapid turns of talk querying one another for evidence, interpreting results, and building an argument

Simply participating in the game required students to weigh evidence, develop hypotheses, test them against evidence, and generate theories based on this evidence

The younger students more readily developed and abandoned hypotheses based on new forms of evidence, showing a preference toward relatively simple causal models

the high school students entertained fewer hypotheses, holding to their hypotheses until contrary evidence was
found.

Students must make conjectures based on what
they read, seeking out new information to develop
their understandings.

students reading with a goal of understanding, in an effort to understand phenomena in the world (as opposed to
memorize for a test).

could be useful tools in developing students’ oral language skills, a critical variable in later academic success (Gee, 2004).

The high school group in particular engaged in
series of rounds of this kind of conversation, raising
and rejecting hypotheses, providing evidence and
counter evidence, slowly and iteratively building a
theory of events. They ask themselves what they
know and do not know, acknowledging areas where
they need more evidence

The elementary school students—although being similarly skilled readers—struggled much more with the thinking
tasks in the game. They tended to raise and reject
hypotheses with every piece of new evidence.

This finding suggests that, as Kirschner et al. (2006) argue, a challenge for educators is creating developmentally appropriate tasks that engage prior knowledge, encourage students to enact their multiple identities (particularly out of school) and introduce and manage complexity for students to help them think
scientifically

Because no one player had enough information to develop a coherent narrative of events, the group was forced to read, synthesize, and discuss findings.

Social interactions became distributed in
roles and in the environment, in a manner similar to
jigsawing (see Brown and Campione, 1996).

Consistent with literature on transfer of skills in reading strategies, educators might benefit from incorporating reflective activities that call students’ attention directly to these mechanisms, encouraging them to adopt these practices in their own reading.