Betsy DiSalvo - DML Summer Institute 2011
3Betsy is a Human Centered Computing Ph.D. Candidate at Georgia Institute of Technology's School of Interactive Computing. She is pursuing research that examines how culture impacts technology use, and how we can leverage cultural practices in designing learning interventions.
She is focusing on young African American males' use of video games and why they are not leveraging this into an interest in computer science as other groups do.
In response to this, Betsy has created the Glitch Game Testers, where teens work as game testers for game companies and participate in computer science workshops. Glitch, in its second year, has shown a dramatic increase in the number of participants who are or intend to pursue computer related majors in college.
Prior to graduate school Betsy worked as a Research Scientist at the University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center where she lead the development of the Click! Urban Adventure Game, games for the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, curriculum for Robot 250, and educational technology evaluations for the Warhol Museum.