David Williamson Shaffer (born May 10, 1964 in New York City, NY) is the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Learning Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the department of Educational Psychology, the Obel Foundation Professor of Learning Analytics at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, a Data Philosopher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, and Principal of EFGames, LLC. Education and career Shaffer received an A.B. in History and East Asian Studies (1987) from Harvard University and his M.S. (1996) and Ph.D. (1998) in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. Shaffer was a student of James J. Kaput, Mitchel Resnick, William J. Mitchell and Seymour Papert, who studied with Jean Piaget. Shaffer began his career as a teacher at The Mountain School, an independent school in Vershire, VT. He taught and worked as a teacher-trainer in the US Peace Corps in Nepal from 1989–1991 in a secondary-level science and math teacher development program sponsored by the Asian Development Bank. After completing his studies at MIT, Shaffer taught in the Technology in Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and conducted research in medical education at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2001, Shaffer became an Assistant Professor in Education Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006, to Full Professor in 2008, and became the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Learning Science in 2016. He has also been the Obel Foundation Professor of Learning Analytics at Aalborg University in Copenhagen since 2016, a Principal Investigator at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research since 2001, and a Faculty Affiliate of the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison since 2005. In 2008, Shaffer founded EFGames, LLC, an educational game development and consulting firm. Shaffer was a Marie Curie Fellow at Utrecht University from 2008–2009, and received a Fellowship to the European Institute for Advanced Study at École normale supérieure de Lyon for 2015. Theories Shaffer is a scholar in the fields of the Learning Sciences, Education, and Educational Psychology best known for his work on computer games and learning. Shaffer's research was originally based on the development of epistemic games, or games that simulate real-world problem solving. Based on studies of how people learn to solve complex problems in realistic settings, Shaffer developed epistemic frame theory, which suggests that professional thinking is best understood not in terms