Elisabeth (Betty) Gee is the Delbert & Jewell Lewis Chair in Reading & Literacy and Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of English at Arizona State University (ASU). She has published widely on the topics of literacy, gender, gaming, and learning; her recent books include Women and Gaming: The Sims and 21st Century Learning (2010), Language and Learning in a Digital Age (2011), both co-authored with James Gee, and Learning in Video Gaming Affinity Spaces (2012) (co-edited with Sean Duncan). Betty is currently the Co-Director of Play2Connect, a research and outreach project that aims to promote intergenerational learning, communication, and well being through video games. She is PI on the Joint Media Engagement, Play, Literacy, and Learning among Mexican-American Families Project funded by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. Betty is also PI on the NSF-funded project, The Role of Story in Games to Teach Computer Science Concepts to Middle School Girls.

Prior to joining the faculty at ASU, she was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1990-2007) where was a founding member of the Games, Learning, & Society research collective. Betty was named a 2011 White House Champion of Change for her work on using games and digital media to engage girls in computing.

PRESENTING WITH

SINEM SIYAHHAN

Sinem Siyahhan is an Assistant Professor of Educational Technology and Learning Sciences at California State University, and the Founding Director of Play2Connect, an initiative that aims to support family learning, communication, and connection through gaming. Her scholarship uses design-based research to understand the affordances of digital media technologies, in particular video games, for human-computer interaction, teaching, learning, and social change. She is the Co-PI on the Joint Media Engagement, Play, Literacy, and Learning among Mexican-American Families Project funded by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.