Video Games for History Educators and Students

In my search to discover ways college educators could use video games, interactive sites or virtual worlds to teach college level history courses I found many promising leads and articles, but most of the recent, real hands on websites or academic publications are for primary and secondary history educators. The October 2012 Comic Con held in New York hosted a panel “Games and Learning” for educators interested in integrating video games into their classrooms; the panelists addressed the failing K-12 educational system and how games could be utilized to better educated kids (Sarkar, 2012) and it appeared that college instructors were not represented at the convention.

Several extensive searches on the internet have yielded many websites for K-12 students such as BBC’s Interactive on Line Learning site (BBC, 2012) and the Catan “Settlers” series of educational games (Catan, 2012). The sites are very interesting, but would not be suitable for adult students of history. Even a recent and excellent Routledge publication, “Gaming the Past: “Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History”(McCall, 2011) is written by a high school educator for high school history and social studies educators. Another leader in gaming education is Tim Ryland, an award winning educator who utilized the game MYST for teaching, motivating and inspiring his primary students many years ago (Sarkar, 2012). Indeed, most of the innovative educators that have utilized gaming technology to support student learning have until most recently been teaching students in K-12 grades.

College educators may have slow to embrace video games and leaning in the mainstream; but there have always been educators who recognized that their students were already learning history from their video games- and realized that they might as well harness those teachable moments (Parrino, 2004). I believe there will soon be more college level courses that utilize gaming technology and we have only begun to discover that there are many learning opportunities possible (Epstein, 2005).

In the spring of 2013 Professor Joseph at The University of South Carolina is offering a course, “Computer Games and History”(Sarkar, 2012). At Rice University a professor was inspired by Skyrim, a game based on Norse saga, to create a course on mythology and fantasy for third year English students (Game Guide, 2012). I have selected two video games and will discuss ways they could be integrated into teaching college history to adult students.

Total War Rome II official website is accessed at http://www.totalwar.com/en_us/media/rome2/videos#video-CGSHI0Ohgqc

Total War Rome is a game that could be used to teach Ancient history, Roman Empire History and a more general World History. This is a real time and turn based strategy game so I believe it would be best to put students in pairs as teams of players to support one another in history computer gaming lab. I would try to match up students with lesser gaming experience with those that have stronger gaming skills. . The gaming would be supported by lecture, scholarly readings and in class discussion the other 3 days of a week. I would have an on line discussion board with a weekly question related to the game and the class learning for that week; each student would be required to answer the question and respond to at least one other student post. This is a place where students could comment on historical inaccuracies they might find in the game and more complex problems such as biases that all conflict is natural or cultural misrepresentations of people (Squire, 2011). I think it would be fun to set up a class twitter page with access and ask all student players to post real time tweets to report their progress during labs or if they are playing the game at home and to always make real connections to their research or things we’ve covered in readings or lectures.

Europa Universalis II official website is accessed at http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/europa-universalis-ii

Europa Universalis is an award winning game recognized for its ability to translate historic events into lessons for the players; through factual historic information, planning and game strategy (Parrino, 2004). This game could be utilized in history courses that teach about European powers during the Middle Ages, Age of Exploration, European colonization, The Reformation, World history, The American Revolution, The Crusades and French History to list just a few possibilities. This game will give students an introductory level glimpse into military strategy and tactics, and should provide context and a more meaningful understanding to course readings and lectures.

I would use Europa Universalis in a history computer gaming lab style course. Lab would meet two days per week and the class would meet three days per week. In lab, each student would choose what country they are going to build and they would be in control of their own game play. To measure learning, I would ask student’s to keep learning journals to describe what they are doing and learning and to make connections to our other course lectures, readings and class discussions. I would also have students select their topic or area of interest and write a ten to twelve page research paper that they work on incrementally throughout the course. The research paper should include primary and secondary sources that would be related to what they are doing, what country they are building within the Europa Universalis game.

Total War and Europa Universalis are games that will foster critical thinking skills, planning, and understanding long term strategies as they assume identities of monarchs, world leaders, battlefield generals. They also can gain a greater understanding of geography and the changing geopolitical map throughout history. Students get a glimpse into the complexities of war, commerce, weaponry and armor, naval warfare, diplomacy and trade and the diversity of people and cultures around the world. Instructors need to time lectures, readings, activities and class discussion carefully to support the learning that is going on from gaming.

References

Catan (2012). The Official “the Settlers of Catan” Website. Retrieved on Nov. 26, 2012 from http://www.catan.com/games.html

BBC (2102). Interactive Games Content. Retrieved on Nov. 26, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/

Epstein, D. (2005). Not Just Child’s Play. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved on Nov. 26, 2012 from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/11/28/civ

Europa Universalis II. Retrieved on Nov. 26, 2012 from http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/europa-universalis-ii

Game Guide (2012). Skyrim Inspires Norse Saga Course at Rice University. Retrieved on Nov. 26, 2012 from http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/3832/20121020/skyrim-inspires-norse-saga-course-rice-university.htm

Gaming the Past (2012). Student Created Sims as Historical Interpretations. Retrieved on Nov. 28, 2012 from http://gamingthepast.net/theory-practice/mccall-student-created-sims-as-historical-interpretations/

McCall, J. (2011). “Gaming the Past: “Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History”. New York, NY: Routledge.

Parrino, S. (2004). Europa Universalis 2 as a History Lesson. WarGamer. Retrieved on Nov. 28, 2012 from http://www.wargamer.com/news/736/press-release-europa-universalis-2-as-a-history-lesson

Sarkar, S., 2012. Meet a Team of Educators Who Are Adding Games to the 21st-Century Curriculum. Polygon. Retrieved on Nov. 28, 2012 from http://www.polygon.com/2012/10/15/3508572/bringing-video-games-into-the-21st-century-curriculum

Sarkar, S., 2012. College Class Explores Video Games’ Version of History. Polygon. Retrieved on Nov. 28, 2012 from http://www.polygon.com/2012/10/19/3527938/college-class-explores-video-games-version-of-history

Squire, K. (2011). Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Age. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Total War Rome II (2012). Retrieved on Nov. 27, 2012 from official website is accessed at http://www.totalwar.com/en_us/media/rome2/videos#video-CGSHI0Ohgqc

Kindle Fire

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is an example of affordable mobile technology that might be utilized to assist educators and students at the college level. I have had a Kindle Fire for almost a year now and seriously, I have not had time to do more than look at it a few minutes here and there. Now that I am looking at it and using it, I realize I should be using it more often as I really like the Kindle Fire. It has a nice interface, small, slim, portable, and a long battery life. Yet it is big enough to use the touch pad easily and has a high enough resolution that it is easy to watch a movie on Netflix or as I just learned- the History Channel. I like the fact that it was just $200.00 new on Amazon, although the price has just dropped to $159.00 due to the release of Kindle Fire HD which sells for 199.00 – 299.00 (Amazon, 2012).

With the Kindle Fire you can search the web anywhere wireless technology is available. If your course is using social networking such as Twitter or Facebook, it is easy to log on and check for updates and news. I have Twitter, Facebook and the icons for You Tube, Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo, IMDB.com, LinkedIn and Craigslist on my web home page. I just used Google to find my blog, logged in and am looking at my edublog as I type this.

I just logged onto my Google account and into my Google reader; I can see my subscriptions for all my colleagues education and technology blogs. Now, this is exciting, I can see how this would be really helpful for students and educators and for me right now. I am a little exhausted, I’m at 14 hours nonstop work and study today and I do not feel like I can sit up at my PC and do any more reading or studying. However, I am not mentally tired, so I could grab my kindle Fire, lay on the couch, put my feet up and do a little catching up on my blog reading. I can see students using Kindle Fire to keep up with classes and assignments while they are in a coffee shop, waiting at the bus station, in between classes, or just a few minutes between class and work, or their work break. Instructors can use Kindle Fire in the same way and keep up to date or post tweets and status updates and important classroom reminders.

Google Bookmarks

Educators, students or anyone who conducts a lot of on line research can benefit from anyone of the many sites for storing and saving bookmarks that they can access from a mobile device. My favorites bar on my computer has about a zillion links, I have to scroll down forever to find anything and there’s absolutely no real organization in there. This computer is 5 years old and even though I have a good backup system, I would probably not want to recreate the chaos of my current favorites on a new PC.

This is where sites like Google Bookmarks (Google, 2012) can save educators and students time, stress, not to mention paper and printer ink. Imagine the benefits of saving and collecting all your research for a specific paper or project in one place and then be able to return and retrieve the results of your research- no more lost sources, or printing an article that was not really helpful. Google Bookmarks lets you save the shortcuts and links from your favorite web sites or recent research and you are able to return or navigate them in seconds. Google bookmarks are stored in your Google Account, you can access them from any computer’s Toolbar or from the Google Bookmarks homepage (Google, 2012).

Other great features of Google Bookmarks are that you can access the bookmarks from any computer or mobile device by signing into your Google account. You can also create and name categories to store your bookmarks; all my bookmarks for my research on education and technology are stored in a file with that name, I have another folder for my emerging technologies proposal. I would encourage students to use Google Bookmarks as they conduct library and internet research for their courses. I have known about other bookmarking sites and just never took the time to use them. It may take a few minutes to get your Google Bookmarks set up, but the time saved later will make it worthwhile. I love the idea that I will no longer have to store research sources on a WORD document,; this will save me time, lots of time and I like that I will not lose important research.

References

Amazon.com (2012). Retrieved on Nov. 19, 2012 from http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0083Q04IQ/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=15258864564&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16477779654441174&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_7tcliwwieu_b

Google Bookmarks (2012) Retrieved on Nov. 20, 2012 from https://www.google.com/bookmarks/?hl=en

Social networking is a practical way for educators to reach out to students and extend learning beyond the classroom. Students have a real time way to stay up to date, and remain engaged with their course, resources and each other.

Pinterest

The social networking site Pinterest has excellent potential for educational purposes, http://pinterest.com/ . I have a Pinterest site of my own, although I have not really had time to get into it. Pinterest is a social photography sharing site that allows users to collect, organize and share digital images, I believe you can also share videos, webcasts, and info on blogs. You pin your images to a to virtual pin board, think of it as a visual bookmarking site. People can find categories they are interested in and follow various “pins” according to their selections. You can follow all types of things such as home design, wish lists, weddings, education, history, celebrities, recipes, fashion and much more; the pins are as varied as varied as are people’s interests.
I had wondered about Pinterest’s usefulness in Education, especially so, since my current research is focusing on digital images and visual literacy. I found several references to education, and an article about education and technology that lists several sites to follow. Here’s a main link to Education and Technology on Pinterest http://pinterest.com/edudemic/
Pinterest Links

Pinterest http://pinterest.com/edudemic/
http://edudemic.com/2012/10/pinterest-education-technology/

Twitter

The second social networking site I recommend for educators would be Twitter, often referred to as a microblogging site (AHA, 2011). http://twitter.com/. I like Twitter because it is quick and to the point as posts or tweets as they are called in the twitterverse are only 140 characters long.
This following link directs to an article with 100 helpful suggestion on how to use Twitter in Education. It covers basics, etiquette, setting up a network, how to find and build a following. , http://edudemic.com/2012/04/100-ways-to-use-twitter-in-education-by-degree-of-difficulty/ .

I would love to use Twitter for History; I would have a “This day in History” Tweet as related to my course. I would also post helpful suggestions, new resources, great work and encouraging comments. Twitter would be a way to extend learning and engage students, to get the quiet, shy or reserved students to share. Instructors could send reminder tweets on due dates, format expectations, links, important notifications such as weather related cancelations or illness. Here’s a link to the Twitter account for teaching History.org, https://twitter.com/teachinghistory .
Twitter can be linked up with other social networking sites such as Facebook. For instance in my work, when I post a Facebook status update, it automatically posts on Twitter as well. So this does not have to be as time consuming some might imagine. Many folks I know may want to dismiss these sites as useless, and a waste of time and energy. True, there is a lot of fluff and nonsense out there in the social networking world, it’s a mirror of our society in a way. Users soon learn to focus on what they need to know and tune out the static and fluff.

Social networking can be beneficial for educators who want to facilitate engagement, collaboration and communication. Students are able to stay up to up to date, receive important communications and feedback and continue learning through social networking. Last year when Walden was updating software and having technical issues I followed Walden’s updates on Twitter and Facebook . I was able to go into my classroom before the whole site crashed and copy all my assignments and readings for that week to a word document. Social networking helped me stay on my schedule and prevented me from getting stressed out over late assignments or not knowing what was going on at Walden.

Twitter Links
http://twitter.com/
http://edudemic.com/2012/04/100-ways-to-use-twitter-in-education-by-degree-of-difficulty/
https://twitter.com/teachinghistory
http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2011/1104/1104tec1.cfm
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2009/06/08/50-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-college-classroom/
http://www.aacom.org/people/SOME/Documents/DavisTips/50-Ways-to-Use-Twitter-in-the-Classroom.pdf
http://www.teachthought.com/social-media/60-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-classroom-by-category/

The Digital History Reader Project

The Digital History Reader Project resources are for introductory college level and advanced level high school learners. There are two learning modules to choose from; Introduction to United States History and Introduction to European History. Each respective module contains easy to navigate pages that include introduction, context, evidence, assignments, conclusion, resources and questions about the central topics. I was pleased to find many primary source documents listed throughout the lessons. The site is easy to navigate and contains useful lessons and questions for educators and students. It really is a wonderful site that was created by experienced educators and learned historians alongside dedicated students who were at the cutting edge of what was possible at the time of publication.

It is unfortunate that the Digital History Reader Project site appears to have been abandoned sometime after 2007 and before it was fully realized. I would love to see this project revitalized and updated with new topics, more primary sources, images and links to map collections, national archives and of course utilizing newer technologies available to us today. I suspect the project did not continue due to budget limitations and faculty time constraints.

The Digital History Reader Project is an example of why digital educational and multimedia resources are an ongoing endeavor and why it is vital that sites remain dynamic and relevant (Richardson, 2010). Historians should devote time and expertise to the development of these sites and the academe must support their efforts. A site such as Digital History should not be considered a side project to be completed during a scholar’s spare time. Faculty and partners need time, support and budgets to develop, maintain, revise and implement new technology into their multimedia educational sites. Please see http://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/about/index.html

Digital History: Using New Technologies to Enhance Teaching and Research

Digital History was created by the College of Education at the University of Houston. It is a fully developed multimedia resource to support teaching American History in college and grades K-12. Digital History is an outstanding resource for educators and one that has the potential to actively engage students of history of all ages. The site includes a full text book, primary sources, time lines, audio archives of historians speaking, multimedia exhibitions, and visual archives. In addition, there are over seventy inquiry based interactive learning modules and a tremendous amount of resources for history educators.

I was pleased to see a section on The First Americans as an integral learning module and as the first topic listed in the study of American History. I worked through the multimedia resources on the First Americans and was impressed with the presentation as well as the scholarship and sources. For an introductory course the site offers some very sophisticated primary sources. It is my opinion that students of history should be introduced to primary sources very early and this site meets that standard.

I would recommend Digital History to all history and social studies educators and students of history and cultural studies. This learning resource serves as a reminder that the creation of a body of work such as this site is truly a collaborative undertaking. The trend toward collaborative work where teams of experts create multimedia learning resources is facilitated now with easier access to more programs and applications (Richardson, 2010). The credits on Digital History include a team of professionals from the University of Houston and an impressive list of partners and sponsors. I hope these experts will continue to create, revise and enhance Digital History and that this team will continue to receive support and sponsorship for their work. Please see http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu

References

Ewing, Watson, Stephens, Lehr, and Thorp (2007). The Digital History Reader. Retrieved on Nov. 5, 2012 from http://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/about/index.html

Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2012). Digital History. Retrieved on Nov. 6, 2012 from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (3rd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.