1. Digital games for education Mark Chen Feb 13, 2008

2. Benefits of gaming  Promotes problem solving and logic skills  Playing good games means recognizing patterns and making strategic decisions.  Situated experience can be powerful.  What transfers though?  Embodied narrative

3. Controversies of gaming  Violence  No conclusive research partly due to misunderstanding of games and genres  Assumes content or disposition transfer  Simple player-game model of experience  Addiction  Assumes games are valueless  Simple player-game model, again

4. Sociocultural model of gaming  If gamers are part of a larger cultural phenomenon, the source of powerful benefits and controversies are tied to cultural practices and norms.  Collaborative, collective decision making  Distributed expertise  Danger of dominant norms marginalizing certain players

5. Gaming literacy?  Participating in a transmedia culture  Websites, FAQs, fan fiction and art, wikis, digital literacy practices and tech knowledge, online communities  As with any domain, to be literate means to participate (produce, consume, share).  Rather than censor or exclude certain cultural practices, we should encourage critical thought and a sense of self in social contexts.

6. Some good games for classrooms  Still, there are definitely some games that are better suited for classroom use.  PeaceMaker and other games for change: http://www.gamesforchange.org/main/GameList http://www.gamesforchange.org/main/GameList  Animal Crossing  Civilization (Kurt Squire)  SimCity (Cole and 5th D stuff)  Darfur is Dying: http://www.darfurisdying.comhttp://www.darfurisdying.com

7. Resources  Jim Gee interview: http://chronicle.com/colloquylive/2003/08/video/http://chronicle.com/colloquylive/2003/08/video/  Orange County DoE video on games for education: http://www.seriousgames.org/archives/000199.html http://www.seriousgames.org/archives/000199.html  Mark’s essay on pros and cons of gaming: http://markdangerchen.net/2007/06/04/exam-question-1/ http://markdangerchen.net/2007/06/04/exam-question-1/  Mark’s essay on games for learning: http://markdangerchen.net/2007/06/04/exam-question-2/ http://markdangerchen.net/2007/06/04/exam-question-2/  A response to the New Atlantic’s take on video games: http://infocult.typepad.com/infocult/2005/08/new_atlantis_gr.html http://infocult.typepad.com/infocult/2005/08/new_atlantis_gr.html  Games Learning Society conference  An example of New Games Journalism: http://www.alwaysblack.com/blackbox/bownigger.html http://www.alwaysblack.com/blackbox/bownigger.html

8. Class agenda  Discuss the Gee article—do you agree with his premises or not? Explain.  Describe your experiences playing digital games from the past week.  What decisions did you have to make?  Were the games difficult to get into?  What are the issues with the games you played this past week (not all digital games in general)?  Think about the written “texts” in the games you encountered. Do you think there is value in the texts for helping students increase their traditional literacies (reading, writing)?  Talk about the social nature of games—do you feel the games you played encouraged cooperation, competitiveness, social interaction, etc.?  What were the stereotypes visible in the games you played?  Short presentation/summary