ICT-SPACE: Developing ICT-STEM Career Interest, Engagement and Self-Efficacy in Middle School Students through Serious Games

智慧工具(WT)将与印第安纳州STEM资源网络(I-STEM)合作，设计、开发和测试ICT-SPACE(ICT-STEM专业和职业探索)，这是一个为7年级和8年级学生提供的基于游戏的职业探索环境。这个ITEST战略项目的主要成果是一套六个在线迷你游戏，学生们可以通过这套游戏“尝试”五个ICT-STEM职业，然后合作解决每个职业都需要技能的最高挑战任务。该项目的主要目标是通过提高中学生对STEM和STEM活动和职业的认识、参与度、兴趣、知识和自我效能感，鼓励他们从事STEM职业，特别是信息和通信技术(ICT)职业。ICT空间将被设计为在学校、家里和其他自由选择的环境中发挥作用，从而提供在不同时间和地点继续职业探索的多种机会。为了支持游戏，智慧工具将开发一个在线教师专业发展计划，以帮助课程整合、课程计划、标准调整、技术问题和扩展学习战略。第二个项目目标是利用视频游戏的负担能力来设计ICT空间，以吸引代表不足的人群(女性、少数民族/少数民族、农村和城市经济困难人口)进入ICT-STEM领域。这些游戏将包含基于研究的严肃游戏功能，这些功能将吸引代表性不足的人群，例如多样化的非玩家角色；为一个人的化身选择不同属性的能力；各种任务目标；不同的奖励结构；以及不同的任务类型。该项目将加强ITEST战略组合，帮助我们理解如何设计一个基于游戏的职业探索环境，以吸引中学生，特别是代表不足的群体参与ICT-STEM活动、课程和职业。

Wisdom Tools (WT), in partnership with the Indiana STEM Resource Network (I-STEM), will design, develop, and test ICT-SPACE (ICT-STEM Professions And Careers Exploration), a game-based career exploration environment for 7th and 8th grade students. The primary deliverable for this ITEST Strategies project is a suite of six online mini-games that will allow students to "try on" five ICT-STEM professions, and then work collaboratively to solve a capstone challenge mission requiring skills from each profession. The primary goal of this project is to encourage middle school students, particularly those from underrepresented populations, to pursue STEM careers, and specifically Information and Communication Technology (ICT) careers, by increasing their awareness, engagement, interest, knowledge of and self-efficacy related to ICT and STEM activities and careers.ICT-SPACE will be designed to be played at school, at home, and at other free-choice environments, thus providing multiple opportunities for continued career exploration at different times and locations. To support the games, Wisdom Tools will develop an online teachers' professional development program to assist with curriculum integration, lesson plans, standards alignment, technical issues, and strategies for extended learning.A second project goal is to use the affordances of video games to design ICT-SPACE in a way that will attract underrepresented populations (females, ethnic/racial minorities, rural and urban economically disadvantaged populations) to ICT-STEM fields. The games will incorporate research-based serious game features that will appeal to under-represented populations, such as diverse non-player characters; the ability to choose diverse attributes for one's avatar; a variety of mission objectives; different reward structures; and different task types. This project will strengthen the ITEST Strategies portfolio by contributing to our understanding of how to design a game-based career exploration environment to engage and interest middle school students, and underrepresented groups in particular, in ICT-STEM activities, coursework and careers.