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