Press play: designing an epistemic game engine for journalism

Abstract

Epistemic games are one approach to creating educational games that give players skills that transfer beyond the game world by helping young people become fluent in valuable social practices. Epistemic games are immersive, technology-enhanced, role-playing games where players learn to become---and thus to think like---doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, and other members of important practices and professions. In what follows we look at the design of Byline, an epistemic game engine behind science.net, an epistemic game of science journalism. In particular, we argue that rather than simply recreating the technological conditions of the profession, an epistemic game engine like Byline can encode key elements of a professional practicum and thus help young people learn through participation in simulations of the training practices of socially valued professions such as science journalism.