There is a
huge push in the gaming industry to promote games as learning tools. However,
most gaming companies do not produce educational games. In the paper,”Confronting
the Challenges of a Participatory Culture”, it was pointed out that games such
as Civilization present a false or distorted view of history. With huge budgets
to work with to create content, some people actually believe that these games
create historically accurate scenarios. (Jenkins, 22, 2009) When my son played
these games, he thought that they were historically accurate. When I viewed the
material, it was apparent that although fun to play, the narrative had nothing
to do with history. I encouraged him to question the story line. Being able to
distinguish between fiction and fact is another part of literacy when using any
media.
Having a sense of
skepticism is part of literacy that should be developed as one uses new media. New
inventions have occurred since the dawn of time. Understanding how media is
created, being able to see the ghost in the machine can help to develop that
skepticism. In creating new media content, one uses similar skills to creating
content in other media. One types, photographs, creates films, art work etc. All
forms of media have many influences. Film makers create films from history or
fiction. Art work can use other media, historical or fictive sources as
inspiration for subject matter. Not knowing what these works are, not
connecting new media to previous media can create a false sense that the
computer is a magic box. Literacy about content from a broader cultural
perspective bridges the gap between “new” and “old” media.
A computer is a tool. In conjunction with the internet, it
has many capabilities. One can read text on the screen. One can store books
using the memory of the hard drive. It is a word processor. There are websites
where one can self-publish. Understanding what this tool can do increases
literacy. Being able to harness this tool to increase the self-actualization of
each individual implies that the rights of individuals need to be upheld. This
requires literacy about intellectual property which may or may not be an unrealistic expectation in education, depending on the age of the individual.
-S. Bennett & K. Maton, “Beyond the ‘digital natives’ debate: Towards a more nuanced
understanding of students’ technology experiences”,, Faculty of Education,
University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Department
of Sociology and Social Policy, Faculty of Arts, University of Sydney, Sydney,
Blackwell Publishing, 2010.
-Crystal, David, Language and the
Internet, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
-Henry
Jenkins with Ravi Purushotma, Margaret Weigel, Katie Clinton, and Alison
Robison “Confronting the Challenges of a Participatory Culture, Media Education
for the 21st Century”, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning, 2009.
Before starting this degree, I had read some on Game Based Learning. I instantly found what I really wanted to study.
ReplyDeleteEverything you wrote is correct, in my opinion. I will say that...like in movies, sometimes facts become distorted or embellished in order to keep the audience captivated. Now, if you look at games being utilized in a way that doesn’t have to be historically accurate; how would we be able to utilize that into learning? Well, behind the scenes of your son’s game he is being taught strategy, politics, command and resource building. No matter how inaccurate the historical aspect of the game, there are teachable and learned mechanics of the game – or any game.
If the game was designed to teach history, well then the game did do a less than satisfactory job in their design.
I do note that you did talk about his perspective of how history happened. You stated that he felt that history happened as it did in the game. And you are correct in stating that people should understand what is accurate and what is not. Again just like movies, we understand that some things are exaggerated.
I really enjoyed your post. It may just help me understand Game Based Learning a little better!