What do Games teach?

We will be joined by Matt Todd (Ubisoft; LinkedIn Profile) who will contribute to our discussion. As a result the readings have changed somewhat to reflect his potential contributions to our discussions.

Goals for this week

• Our goal this week is to reflect on the pedagogical value of games - what do they teach, how do they teach? Games have tremendous potential value for classrooms, museums, galleries and other public history venues, but we should consider what we might want games to do when communicating history.

• Another goal is to get you practicing using Obsidian for making notes. You will practice creating notes and importing your annotations into them. By class, you should have completed exercise 4.

• Discuss the two Free Topic classes:

  • What two topics should we choose?

  • Should we shift them around with the Student Presentation days?

  • Think about how would that affect class deadlines?

Read/Watch/Listen

Kevin Kee, Shawn Graham et al. "Towards a Theory of Good History Through Gaming." The Canadian Historical Review 90, no. 2 (2009): 303-326. https://doi.org/10.1353/can.0.0164. (Online Pdf; Online text).

R. Houghton, "Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games" in , Robert Houghton, editor. Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games : Using, Modding and Creating Games for Education and Impact. Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110712032. Consult via: https://doi-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/10.1515/9783110712032

N. Dahya, J. Jenson, and K. Fong, "(En)gendering videogame development: A feminist approach to gender, education, and game studies". Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 39(4) August 2017: 367- 390 - (PDF)

• URI: https://resolver-scholarsportal-info.proxy.library.carleton.ca/resolve/10714413/v39i0004/367_vdafatgeags.xml

• DOI: https://doi-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/10.1080/10714413.2017.1344508

C. Konshuh and F. Klaassen, "The Renaissance Marriage Game: A Simulation for Large Classes," in Teaching the Middle Ages through Modern Games (see above)

• Card deck and rules

New

Champion, Erik and Hiriart Vera, Juan Francisco. ›Assassin’s Creed‹ in the Classroom: History’s Playground or a Stab in the Dark?, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2024. https://doi-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/10.1515/9783111253275 (pdf will be uploaded to Teams/Obsidian folder; Carleton library does not yet have access to ).

• Champion, Erik and Hiriart, Juan. "Introduction: History’s Playground or a Stab in the Dark?". pp. 1-10.

• Éthier, Marc-André and Lefrançois, David. "Chapter 1 Historical Video Games and Teaching Practices", pp. 11-34.

• Xu, Chu, Sharma, Robin and Dubé, Adam K.. "Chapter 2 Discovery Tour Curriculum Guides to Improve Teachers’ Adoption of Serious Gaming", pp. 35-64.

Prepare:

Our goal is to get you practicing using Obsidian to write up literature notes.