Seann Dikkers is a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. He holds B.A. degrees in Philosophy, Political Science, and Education and a M.A. degree in Educational Leadership from Bethel University in St. Paul, MN. Dikkers taught middle school social studies in the Twin Cities area for ten years using portfolio and games based instruction in the classroom.

After doing the grad work to earn his Administrative license at St. Mary's University, he served as a 7-12 Principal in northern Minnesota for two years. There he led his school in pioneering a new scaffolded-quest platform for SpEd services and worked with Rosetta Stone to build a "Language Lab" for students to take over thirty courses in a games-based setting.

Dikkers' work since joining the research team at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, under adviser Kurt Squire, is working with Florida Virtual Academy's curriculum team to develop games based learning using Civilization III. Here in Madison, he is working 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 the social studies and using games to motivate students and build higher levels of rigor in academic pursuits.

<< Back to People