Fall 2007

NMEA20H Introduction to New Media in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Video games: agents of learning or weapons of mass distraction?

Instructor
Leslie Chan
Room B570
chan@utsc.utoronto.ca

Teaching Assistant
Stephen Tracy


 

Are video games the forerunners of instructional tools that will determine how we learn in the future? Do violent video games beget violent behaviour? What are the social implications of massive multiplayers role playing games? These and other questions on the meanings of computer games and gaming are considered this week.

Readings:

Lauren Gonzalez (2005?) Redefining Games: How Academia Is Reshaping Games of the Future.
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6106009/p-8.html

Jame Paul Gee (2005) "What Would a State of the Art Instructional Video Game Look Like?" Innovate: Journal of Online Education, Aug/Sept. Vol. 1 (6)
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=80

Gonzalo Frasca (2003) "Sim Sin City: some thoughts about Grand Theft Auto 3" Games Studies Vol 3 (2).
http://www.gamestudies.org/0302/frasca/

Recommended Readings:
Greg Jones and Kevin Kalinowski (2006) A Proposal for Accelerating the Implementation and Development of Video Games in Education. Innovate: Journal of Online Education, Aug/Sept. Vol. 2 (6).
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=239

Kurt Squire (2005) Changing the Game: What Happens When Video Games Enter the Classroom? Innovate: Journal of Online Education, Aug/Sept. Vol. 1 (6).
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=82

Joel Foreman (2004). Game-Based Learning: How to Delight and Instruct in the 21st Century. EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 39, no. 5 (September/October 2004): 50–66
http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0454.asp

Sites:
PBS's documentary on the Video Game Revolution. (First aired in September 2004)
http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/

“Games, Simulations, and Learning” is an EDUCAUSE NLII 2004 Key Theme http://www.educause.edu/nlii/keythemes/2004/games.asp

Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) is a non-profit, international association of academics and practitioners whose work focuses on digital games and associated activities.
http://www.digra.org/

International Game Developers Association
http://www.igda.org/

The Ivory Tower Archive (an interesting collection of academic papers on game research)
http://www.igda.org/columns/ivorytower/ivory_archive.php

An online journal of games research
http://www.gamestudies.org/

Water Cooler Games is a site about video games with an agenda . It is about games that go beyond entertainment.
http://www.watercoolergames.org/

Activism, the Public Policy game
http://www.activismgame.com/

Ludology, an online resource for videogame researchers.
http://ludology.org/index.php

'America's Army' Targets Youth
by Jacob Hodes & Emma Ruby-Sachs
http://www.hiphopconvention.org/issues/tech/game.cfm

 

 

 

 

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