John L. Sherry
Bio
Dr. Sherry teaches a variety of courses on the effects of mass media at the undergraduate and graduate level. In addition, he teaches graduate courses on complex systems, media theory, and educational media. He currently focuses on two areas of research: videogames for education and communication as a complex dynamic system. The educational gaming strand of his research focuses on the underlying cognitive processes that facilitate learning during game play and how those differ among gender, personality, and cognitive skill. His goal is to create barrier-free educational video games to complement formal education curricula. The remainder of his research time is spent developing a new paradigm for studying communication as a dynamic system using modelling, experimentation, and simulation methodologies. He is affiliated with the MSU Cognitive Science Program, a member of the Purdue University Graduate faculty, and is an affiliate of the MSU Games for Entertainment and Learning Lab. He is past Associate Editor of Communication Theory and is co-founder and past Chair of the Video Game Special Interest Group of the International Communication Association.
Current Courseload
Fall 2019
COM 375: Audience Responses to Media Entertainment
COM 921- Micro/Macro Media
Spring 2020
COM 375: Audience Responses to Media Entertainment
COM 305: Children's Educational Media
Research and Teaching
Mass media effects; cognitive and behavioral aspects of video games; educational media; complex systems, computation & communication
