Playing History:

Game as TextLuke Skehan, HTAV Annual Conference

2013

Why Games?Fold.it is a game designed by University of Washington.It allows gamers to manipulate 3-D the structure of proteins.

So what?1/8th of players do not work in science.Two-thirds of the top players have no biochemistry experience beyond high school.2011: Gamers mapped the M-PMV protein, which is crucial to the replication of HIV, in 10 days.Scientists had been unsuccessfully attempting to map this protein for 15 years.

Playing History: Game as Text

What is Game Based Learning?Games in HistoryGames and the Australian CurriculumSerious Games

GBL is Goal BasedThe Plague (App)

GBL is Engaging and Immersive

Lisbon pre-1755 in Second LifeUS Holocaust Museum in Second LifeCompany of Heroes

GBL is User GeneratedMinecraft History ProjectMods

GBL is Collaborativewww.nationstates.net

Empire Story (app)

GBL is ChallengingLevels and BossesFlow Theory: Csikszentmihalyi

GBL is FormativeKnowledge as you need itTotal War: Rome

GBL is FormativeInstant feedback

GBL is FreedomExperimentFailFashion Identities

GBL challenges Perspective 1st Person 3rd Person God View

Game as TextSiren Song of Digital Simulation (Clyde & Wilkinson, 2011)State of the Art vs State of the Actual (Selwyn)Approach with critical eyeGame as text to engage with, interpret, and reflect onEmbedded within broader curriculum

Warfare 1917Year 9 WWI unitTrench Warfarehttp://lukeskehan.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/trench-warfare/

1066: The Game1066 The Game: http://1066game.com/

Australian Curriculum General Capabilities

Australian Curriculum Descriptors applicable to Civilizations V (Y7)

The ways in which the past can be represented through documents, oral history, visual and other accountsThe economic, social and strategic importance of the main geographical features, including landforms and resources, and the geographic location of the society in the broader regionThe social, military and political structures of the society, particularly how people lived, how they fought and how they were governedSignificant developments in the areas of art, architecture, technology, thinking and literature

Continued (Y8)The changing nature of societies in this periodThe movement and interaction of people and culturesThe increasing complexity of societies in this period, including changes in technology, population and the distribution of wealth and powerThe strategic importance of the main geographical featuresThe nature and extent of change in at least ONE of the following areas: ruling and governing; health and medicine; crime and punishment; military and defence systems; towns, cities and commerceThose factors (political, social, economic, environmental or military) that contributed to the rise and/or to the subsequent demise of the societyThe reasons for voyages of discovery in this period, the nature of the voyages and the redrawing of the map of the world

Gaustralian BL & Australian Curriculum

Australian CurriculumHistory: Skills (Year 10)

Civilization V

1066 The Plague

Use chronological sequencing to demonstrate the relationship between events and developments in different periods and places 

✓

Use historical  terms and concepts ✓ ✓ ✓Identify and select different kinds of questions about the past to inform ✓Identify and locate relevant sources, using ICT and other methods  ✓ ✓Identify the origin, purpose and context of primary and secondary sourcesIdentify and analyse the perspectives of people from the past ✓ ✓ ✓

Identify and analyse different historical interpretations (including their own) ✓ ✓ ✓Develop texts, particularly descriptions and discussions that use evidence from a range of sources that are referenced

✓

Select and use a range of communication forms (oral, graphic, written) and digital technologies  ✓ ✓ ✓

Year 7: Ancient HistoryBBC Games: Mummy maker: Pyramid Builder: Whodunnit set in Rome: Roman Emperor text based:

Simulations: Rome Total War, Age of Empires, Civilizations

Apps: Empire Story, Civ Revs Lite, Idol Hunt

Year 8: Medieval HistoryBattles of 1066 with narration: http://www.roundgames.com/game/1066

Apps: Clash of Clans, The Plague, Epic Citadel, King’s Empire

Year 9 & 10: Modern History

WWI Trench warfare: http://www.roundgames.com/game/Warfare+1917

WWII games: http://www.roundgames.com/game/Warfare+1944

Diplomacy: http://www.playdiplomacy.com/

Nations States: www.nationstates.net

Y9 & Y10 AppsEuropean ExplorerEurasiaTrenches II2020 EnergyCivs Rev Lite+ Thousands of WW2 strategy games (D-Day, Frozen Front)

Sweatshop (Flash Game)

September 12: A Toy World

Freedom Bridge

Games4Changehttp://www.gamesforchange.org/http://www.gamesforchange.org/play/september-12th-a-toy-world/http://www.playsweatshop.com/http://fateoftheworld.net/http://pastpresent.muzzylane.com/http://www.stopdisastersgame.org/en/home.htmlhttp://www.nationstates.net/page=welcome

Further ReadingJames GeeKurt SquireConstance SteinkuehlerMarc Prensky