Ackerman Center Research

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Recent research initiatives:

• Ackerman Colloquium on Technology and Citizenship  Education (2006, 2007, 2009)
• Data collection about: Impact of Digital Gaming on Students’ History Knowledge.
• Data collection in the College of Education:  A Reimagined Collective Memory?, seeks to gauge the scope of students’ knowledge and understandings of   the events associated with September 11th.
• Data collection about: Technology Use in Secondary Social Studies Classrooms in Indiana.

Recent Publications:

• Hartshorne, R.*, VanFossen, P.*, & Friedman, A.* (2011, in press). MMORPG roles, civic participation, and leadership among Generation Y. International Journal of Gaming and Computer Mediated Simulations 4 (1).
• VanFossen, P.J.* & McGrew, C. (2010).  Is the sky really falling?; An update on the status of social studies in the K-5 curriculum in Indiana.  International Journal of Social Education, 23(1), 139-179.
• Friedman, A.*, Hartshorne, R.*, and VanFossen, P.J.* (2010). Exploring guild participation in MMORPGs and civic leadership. In, Y. Baek (Ed.), Gaming for classroom-based learning: Digital role playing as a motivator of study.  Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference (imprint of IGI Global), 176-203.
• VanFossen, P .J.   (2009). Student and teacher perceptions of the webquest model in social studies: A preliminary study.  In, J. Lee and A. Friedman (eds.), Research in technology and the teaching of history and social studies.  Charlotte, NC:  Information Age Publishing.
• VanFossen, P.J., Berson, M.J. (Eds.), (2008).The Electronic Republic? The Impact on Technology on Education for Citizenship.