1. Teaching Values Through Gaming:
Jenga, Missile Command, and MMORPGs
Johansen Quijano
University of Texas at Arlington
PRTESOL 38th Annual Convention
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Friday, November 18th, 2011

2. Overview General Theory of Gaming Values Play # 1: Jenga
Four As of Gaming Values
Play # 2: Missile Command
Decision Making and Choices
Play # 3: Fiesta Online (video)
Teamwork in Gaming

3. OVERVIEW OF SUGGESTED GAMING VALUES
Teamwork (Din, 2002)
Love for learning processes (Gee, 2003)
Social skills (Johnson, 2002)
Responsibility (Abanes, 2006)
Language and literacy skills (Gee, 2003; Quijano, 2008)
Relaxation (Gee, 2006)
Violence (Anderson & Bushman, 2001)
Bullying (Anderson, 2010)
Hatred (Gentile Et. Al., 2007)

4. WHAT VALUES DO THESE GAME PROMOTE?

5. WHAT VALUES DOES THIS VIDEOGAME PROMOTE?
NBA 2011

6. WHAT VALUES DOES THIS VIDEOGAME PROMOTE?
GTA 4

7. WHAT VALUES DOES THIS VIDEOGAME PROMOTE?
Flower

8. Let’s Play Jenga! - Instructions
The instructor will ask a player from team # 1 to answer a content question.
Student # 1 will answer.
If the answer is correct, one (or every) individual from every other team will have to draw a Jenga block.
If the answer is incorrect, every member from that team will have to draw a Jenga block.
The instructor will then move to student # 1 from the subsequent teams.
Once all the teams have participated, the instructor will begin a second round with student # 2 from the first team.
Repeat until review questions run out, time runs out, or a “victory goal” is met.
For this session, the winning group is the one with less tower falls. If two groups are tied, the one with the shortest tower wins.

9. JENGA! - Questions
According to astrophysics, what is the exact moment that the Big Bang (and time) began?
10-43 seconds
What is the name of the linguist who first proposed the concept of Universal Grammar?
Noam Chomsky
Who was Bede?
A monk and writer of the Old English period known for Historia Ecclesiastica
What is the name of the Japanese manga artist who created Astroboy?
Ozamu Tezuka
What is the game that you’re playing right now?
Jenga
Convert the following sentence from active to passive voice: “I kicked the ball.”
The ball was kicked by me.
Name the scientific theory that explains how the universe was created.
Big Bang theory
A well-known Web 2.0 video streaming site owned by Google that allows users to upload, rate, and comment on user-created content.
Youtube

10. The Four As of Gaming Values
Accountability
To professor
To peers (group)
To self
Assessment
Self
Group
Attitudes
Personal
Towards the discipline
Attention

11. Let’s Play Missile Command!
… it’s Missile Command… you don’t need any instructions…

12. Missile Command Values
Non-violence
Facing challenges
Moral Choices
“I would wake up in the middle of the night from a nightmare where I’d see the streaks coming in and I would be up in the Santa Cruz mountains and I’d see it hit Sunny Vale and I’d know I had less than 45 seconds the blast reached me. I had these nightmares at least once a month for years after I created Missile Command”
- Dave Theurer, game designer

13. MMORPG – Fiesta Online

14. MMORPG Values Computer literacy Language skills Teamwork Social skills
Responsibility

15. WHAT IS A GAMER?

17. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ?

18. References
Abanes, R. (2006). What every parent needs to know about video games. Eugene, OR: Harvest House.
Din, F. (February, 2002). Playing computer games versus better learning. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of Eastern Educational Research Association, Clearwater, FL. (ERIC Document Reproduction Services No. ED )
Gee, J.P. (2003) What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Johnson, S. (2005). Everything bad is good for you. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.
Quijano, J. (2007, March). Video games and the ESL classroom. The Internet TESL Journal, XIII (2), in
Gee, J.P. (2006). Good video games+good learning. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Anderson, C.A., & Bushman, B.J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12,
Gentile, D., Saleem, M., & Anderson, C. (2007). Public Policy and the Effects of Media Violence on Children. Social Issues and Policy Review, 1(1), 15-61
Anderson, A. Greg. “Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature” Psychological Science. 12.5(2001): JSTOR. California State University East Bay. 2 Dec. 2010