undergraduate learning, small colleges and digital gaming: collaboration and the state of play
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Undergraduate Learning, Small Colleges and Digital Gaming: Collaboration and the State of Play. Gaming, teaching, liberal education: a 2010 snapshot A taxonomy of practices, with selected examples The role of NITLE Futures, next steps, discussion, and futures: towards 2011. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Undergraduate Learning, Small Colleges and Digital Gaming:Collaboration and the State of
Play
Plan of the session
1. Gaming, teaching, liberal education: a 2010 snapshot
2. A taxonomy of practices, with selected examples
3. The role of NITLE4. Futures, next steps,
discussion, and futures: towards 2011
I. Gaming and cultures, 2010Snapshots of the American landscape:
1. Gaming as art and industry continues to develop and grow
2. Pedagogical uses unfolding3. Liberal arts campus cases
are now available, and practitioners are networking
Gaming as part of mainstream culture
• Median age of gamers shoots past 30• Industry size comparable to music• Impacts on hardware, software,
interfaces, other industries• Large and growing diversity of
platforms, topics, genres, niches, players
Gaming as part of mainstream cultureAnecdata: Number of Facebook FarmVille players: 63,715,177 (as of June 2010, http://statistics.allfacebook.com/applications/leaderboard/, )
(Casual games are more mainstream than most heavy-duty games)
Diversity of game genres American teenagers, Pew Internet,
2008
Games serious, public, and political
• Oiligarchy, Molle Industries
• Jetset, Persuasive Games• The Great Shakeout,
California• DimensionM, Tabula
Digita
Gaming’s pedagogical functionsJames Paul Gee• Claims games offer
pedagogical experiences (2003ff)
Other experts follow suit:• Marc Presnsky• Henry Jenkins• John Seely Brown• Mia Consalvo• Constance Steinkuehler• Kurt Squire• Hippasus
Sample pedagogical principles:
• Semiotic domains; transference
• Embodied action and feedback
• Projective identity• Edging the regime of
competence (Vygotsky)• Probe-reprobe cycle• Social learning (roles;
consumption-production)
• “Fish tank” tutorial• Strategic self-
assessment
Another summary
Jason Mittell, MiddleburyCollege: games are platforms for learning…
• Skill development • Simulations• Media studies (psych, cultural
studies, media)– NITLE brownbag, January 2008
How is gaming used now?Classroom and courses• Curriculum content• Delivery mechanism• Creating games
Peacemaker, Impact Games
Revolution (via Jason Mittell)
•Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein, eds, Handbook of Computer Game Studies (MIT, 2005)•Frans Mayra, An Introduction to Game Studies (Sage, 2008)•Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, eds. Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives (MIT, 2009)
Game studies as academic field
How is gaming used now?
Libraries• Collection
development
• Game night
• Creating games
Defense of Hidgeon, Games Archive: University of Michigan
Maturing professional venues
Gaming and liberal educationAnd what is liberal
education, again?• Learning for learning's
sake • Pedagogy (active
learning, faculty/student collab. etc)
• Democratic, engaged citizenship/leadership
• Specific institutional type
-Jo Ellen Parker, 2008 Scripps College library
Gaming and liberal educationWhat are shared
concerns with the rest of academia?
• Pedagogical uses• Support
strategies• Tenure/
promotion• Cultural fears
Bryn Mawr College,Michael Toler
II. A taxonomy of practices
Liberal arts uses• Gettysburg, Hope,
Depauw
II. A taxonomy of current practices1. Faculty research area2. Faculty/staff game creation
A. From scratchB. Modding
3. Classes and learningA. Professional games delivering learning
contentB. “ “ “ objects of studyC. Students creating game contentD. “ “ games
1. Faculty researchHarry Brown, Depauw University(M.E. Sharpe, 2008)• Part I: Poetics
– Chapter 1: Videogames and Storytelling
– Chapter 2: Videogame Aesthetics – Chapter 3: Videogames and Film
• Part II: Rhetoric– Chapter 4: Politics, Persuasion, and
Propaganda in Videogames – Chapter 5: The Ethics of Videogames – Chapter 6: Religion and Myth in
Videogames • Part III: Pedagogy
– Chapter 7: Videogames, History, and Education
– Chapter 8: Identity and Community in Virtual Worlds
– Chapter 9: Modding, Education, and Art
2A. Faculty/staff game creationValley Sim, Christian Spielvogel (Hope College)
• Simulation: American Civil War
• Archives: based on primary documents already in digital archive (Valley of the Shadow)
• Type: MMOG, as players experience and debate the war’s epochal events as avatars based on the lives of residents from two wartime communities
2A. Faculty/staff game creation• Trinity University library: ARG
2B. Faculty/staff game creation• Dickinson College, class on empires: game modding
3A: Games as learning content• Shalom Staub, Assistant Provost for
Academic Affairs, Dickinson College: Conflict Resolution course Peacemaker:
“integrate and apply the concepts and strategies that you will encounter elsewhere in the course.”
3A: Games as learning contentTodd Bryant, Dickinson College: teaching German with World of Warcraft
http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/bryant-MMORPGs-for-SLA
“If the game provides authentic language content and requires communication in order to progress through the game—and our students are willing to spend hours of their time immersed in this environment—we can greatly increase not only their overall exposure to the language but their motivation to learn as well.”
3B: Games as objects of studyAaron Delwiche, Trinity University: COMM
3344, interactive multimedia (Spring 2006)
3C: Students creating game contentChris Fee, The Medieval Atlantic, Gettysburg
College: Interactive Fiction (2007-)
http://blogs.nitle.org/archive/2008/05/09/teaching_with_games_medieval_culture_and/
3D: Students creating gamesVenatio Creo, Ursinus College
III. The role of NITLENonprofit, working to advance
technology in liberal education
NITLE gaming programs so far
Professional development (workshops, videoconferencing)
NITLE Network venues (IT leaders meetings, NITLE-IT list, annual Summits)
Research• Exploration of field• Publications• Blogging• Network facilitation• Game co-creation
– ARG (ELI 2009)– Web game: futures
market, 2008-ongoing
The gaming initiative
• Conference (Dickinson, 2007)• Workshop (Bryn Mawr, 2008)• Web 2.0 networking
– Blog conversations– Twitter “– Diigo
The gaming initiative
And:• Videoconference sessions (starting 2008)• Presentations (CNI, Educause, NMC 2008-
10)• Publications (Alvarado, Alexander, Bryant)“Overcoming the Fear of Gaming: A Strategy
for Incorporating Games into Teaching and Learning.” EDUCAUSE Quarterly Magazine, Volume 31, Number 3. 2008.
The gaming network
Faculty and staff involved from:
• Albion College• Austin College• Depauw
University• Dickinson College• Gettysburg
College
• Hope College• Middlebury
College• Swarthmore
College• Trinity University
(Texas)• Ursinus College• Vassar College
The gaming network
Disciplines include:• Anthropology• Communication• English• History• International
relations• Languages• Media studies
NB: strong emphasis on humanities and non-quantitative social sciences, so far
We launch one gameNITLE prediction markets
(http://markets.nitle.org/)
More social media strategies
• Diigo group (http://groups.diigo.com/group/gaming-and-the-liberal-arts)
More social media strategies
NITLE blogging, http://blogs.nitle.org/
Lessons learned?
What supports intercampus collaboration for educational gaming?
• Strength in diversity (disciplines, regions, projects, sectors)
• Supernodes make the network work (the Dickinson movement)
• Low barriers to entry are crucial• Educational examples are essential• Economic fears vie with cultural anxiety
IV. What next?What else is possible for teaching and
learning with games, based on practice outside of the classroom?
“Computer games as liberal arts?Educators who teach kids to make their own video games are on education's cutting edge.”
(CNN, 2008)
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/06/technology/games_change.fortune/?postversion=2008060606
More current options
Already in use in other .edu sectors:
•Machinima for video production•Information/media fluency
curricula•More modding (ex: Civ IV mod)•Mobile app development
• Exploring no- and low-cost games further
“Nanw’s Adventure”, National Library of Wales
(http://dysgle.llgc.org.uk/gemnanw/ )
What next in liberal arts gaming?Looking into 2011:
• Diigo group continues (68 items so far)
• Ruthless blogging• NITLE prediction market trades,
grows• Reaching out to more schools and
organizations
What next in liberal arts gaming?Looking into 2010:
• Iterations and new projects for fall classes
• Reacting to the Past interest (Pearson)• Mobile gaming development (Vassar)• Repurposing gaming tools for
visualization (machinima), computing power, presentation (Wii remote)
• Simulations in use?• Involvement from sciences
Techne bloghttp://blogs.nitle.org/
Prediction Markets gamehttp://markets.nitle.org/
Diigo group http://groups.diigo.com/groups/gami
ng-and-the-liberal-arts
NITLEhttp://nitle.org