Seann Dikkers
Biography
Seann Dikkers is a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He holds BA degrees in philosophy, political science, and education and a MA degree in educational leadership from Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dikkers taught middle school social studies in the Twin Cities area for 10 years using portfolio- and games-based instruction.
After completing graduate work to earn his administrative license at St. Mary’s University, he served as a 7–12 principal in northern Minnesota for 2 years. There he led his school in pioneering a new scaffolded-quest platform for special education services and worked with Rosetta Stone to build a language lab for students to take over 30 courses in a games-based setting.
Since joining the research team at UW–Madison, Dikkers has worked with Florida Virtual Academy’s curriculum team to develop games-based learning using Civilization III. He works with John Odom and Shree Durga to develop a leadership training course, with a games and design curriculum, at the Youth Empowerment Academy.
In addition to mentoring teachers in methodology, Dikkers’ focus of inquiry is the application of games-based learning to teaching social studies and using games to motivate students and build higher levels of rigor in academic pursuits.