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Small Colleges and Digital Gaming:
Collaboration and the State of Play
Coalition for Networked Information, fall 2009
Bryan Alexander, NITLE
Plan of the session
For the next hour, we control the horizontal and the vertical:
1. Gaming, teaching, liberal education: a 2009 snapshot
2. A taxonomy of practices, with selected examples
3. The role of NITLE4. Futures, next steps, discussion, and
futures: into 2010
Making the audience work alreadyQuick note-taking: what are the two
most salient uses of computer gaming in your institution?
I. Gaming and cultures, late 2009Three key takeaways, for today:
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’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…• Skills • 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)
• Oiligarchy, Molle Industries
• DimensionM, Tabula Digita
• Jetset, Persuasive Games
• The Great Shakeout, California
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 culture
Anecdata: Number of Facebook FarmVille players: 27,539,610 (http://statistics.allfacebook.com/applications/leaderboard/, as of December 2009)
(Casual games are more mainstream than most heavy-duty games)
Diversity of game genres American teenagers, Pew Internet,
2008
•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• Collections• Game night• Creating
games
Defense of Hidgeon, Games Archive: University of Michigan
Maturing professional venues
Making the audience work some moreReturn to your earlier note-taking, and
compare notes with people near you: where on campus are you seeing this?
And where might you see more in ‘10?
Gaming and liberal educationWhat are the
intersections?Shared: classic
academic concerns
• Pedagogical uses• Support• Tenure/promotion• Fears
Image: Bryn Mawr College,Michael Toler
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
II. A taxonomy of practices
Liberal arts uses• Gettysburg, Hope,
Depauw
II. A taxonomy of current practices1. Faculty research2. Faculty/staff game creation3. Classes and learning
A. Professional games delivering learning content
B. “ “ “ 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
2. Faculty/staff game creationValley Sim, Christian Spielvogel (Hope College): MMOG
• American Civil War simulation
• based on primary documents already in digital archive (Valley of the Shadow)
• MMOG: Players experience and debate the war’s epochal events as avatars based on the lives of residents from two wartime communities
2. Faculty/staff game creation• Trinity University library: ARG
2. 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 content• Todd 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 study• Aaron Delwiche, Trinity University: COMM
3344, interactive multimedia (Spring 2006)
3C: Students creating game content• Chris Fee, Gettysburg: Interactive Fiction (2007-)
http://let.blog.nitle.org/2008/05/09/teaching_with_games_medieval_culture_and/
3D: Students creating games• Venatio Creo, Ursinus College
III. The role of NITLENonprofit, working to advance
technology in liberal education
NITLE programs
Professional development (workshops, videoconferencing)
NITLE Network• Several venues
(NITLE-IT, Summit)
Research• Exploration of field• Publications• Blogging• Network facilitation• Game co-creation
– ARG (ELI 2009)– Web game (futures
market)
The gaming initiative
• Web 2.0 networking• Conference (Dickinson, 2007)• Workshop (Bryn Mawr, 2008)
The gaming initiative
And:• MIV sessions (starting 2008)• Presentations (CNI, Educause, NITLE
Summit, NMC 2008-9)• 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 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/let/
Lessons learned?
What supports intercampus collaboration for educational gaming?
• Strength in diversity (disciplines, regions, projects, sectors)
• Supernodes make the network workshop (the Dickinson movement)
• Low barriers to entry are crucial• Educational examples are essential
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)
• 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 2010:
• 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 spring classes
• Reacting to the Past interest (Pearson)• Mobile gaming pilots (Vassar)• Repurposing gaming tools for
visualization (machinima), computing power, presentation (Wii remote)
• Involvement from sciences
Liberal Education Tomorrow bloghttp://blogs.nitle.org/let
Prediction Markets gamehttp://markets.nitle.org/
Diigo group http://groups.diigo.com/groups/ga
ming-and-the-liberal-arts
NITLEhttp://nitle.org