Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (Rutgers University, School of Communication, Department of Library and Information Science)

Rutgers University Assistant Professor Rebecca Reynolds will use a guided, discovery-based program to investigate the impact of gaming on learning among disadvantaged middle and high school students in three states. This Early Career Development Research project aims to cultivate digital fluency, product development expertise, computational thinking, and core curriculum knowledge among students traditionally left behind in the digital divide. Research has provided early evidence indicating that student participation in such a program positively influences standardized test scores in science and social studies. But other research indicates that extrinsically motivated students—those driven to perform a task in order to attain an outcome rather than for the enjoyment of the task itself—may not find the program as conducive to learning as others. The research conducted with this grant cold lead to better understanding of the mechanisms at work..