Now that I have successfully defended my doctoral dissertation I want to post my dedication and acknowledgements page.

Higher Order Thinking Skills in Digital Games

Dedication
I dedicate this dissertation to my loving and patient wife Jeni and to my persistent son Caleb who often asked me to add more games to my research. Thank you Jeni, for all you have done to support me during these many years. Thanks for giving me the time, space, and encouragement to do what I needed to do to finish. I love and appreciate you more than you will ever know!

Acknowledgements
First, I would like to thank the students of Orangevale Montessori who participated in this research. With out your contribution this project would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the administration, teachers, and staff who went out of their way to accommodate me and the students during the research. I would like to thank Dr. Randy Fall, the chairperson of my dissertation committee, who helped me to narrow the scope of my research and set realistic goals. Thanks to Dr. Yau for teaching me so much about learning theories and approaches, and the important role of motivation in learning. Thanks to Dr. Gilbreth for helping me to learn more about educational technology and for challenging me to start a web log on games and learning. Thanks to my committee as a whole for encouraging me to change the original design of my study to include participants – you were right – the students made it better. I also want to thank Dr. Christopher Quinn who helped me lay the foundation of this study with my literature review. And finally I want to thank my mother for giving me my first computer. On that Commodore 64, I wrote my first programs and my first computer games. That gifted helped to open up my mind to analyze, evaluate, and create. That gift helped to open up my world. Thanks Mom.

Anthony W. Palmer Ed.D.