Sorry this post is so late. Week 5 has been really dense in content I am particularly interested in and I didn’t want to rush through just for the sake of finishing. We have also been having a busy time at home with family and work – published student created iBooks for Wrightstuff Interactive (post about soon…).
The next couple of lectures were about using video games to teach historical content. The lecturer – Kurt Squire – first spoke about his research into Civilisations. This game is strategy based. It places the gamer in different historical periods and requires them to build and sustain an empire through time from ancient to modern time. Gamers create the world incorporating new technologies relevant to the era.
After the lecture I watched this introduction to the game – it was a great intro but only watch it if you actually intend to teach with or play the game because its almost an hour and a half long!
The next lecture was about giving students the opportunity solve problems within a historical space. In the Stronghold 3 simulation game the goals are to build a castle and maintain the community connected to that castle. The gamer is forced to make choices and negotiate tasks within a historical frame work. I also had a look at Europa Universallis IV which I immediately liked because of the authentic geography – I couldn’t understand in Civilsations how one gamer had just created Otowa, then turned it into Toronto which no topographical transformation and then Venice attacked him???
I really liked in this lecture when he started talking about history as a series of choices rather than a pre-determined story. History is simply the choices that others have already made. Games can allow students the space to live history again and see what their decisions would be – yes they have a benefit of hindsight but once the timeline errs far enough away from the reality they can then get a sense of making history changing choices.
