Can Video Games Teach?
Can Video Games Teach?
Can Video Games Teach?
By Steven Mintz
Summary
You may have seen an article in The Atlantic entitled "Kids Are Learning History From Video Games Now." Its subtitle, "More students are being exposed to historical narratives through game play-but what exactly are they being taught?" raises questions that academics need to ask as we teach a generation that has grown up with video games.
Can video games teach? And, if so, what can we, as instructors, learn from them?
I suspect most parents already know that their youngish children's most intense exposure to history is taking place not in K-12 social studies classrooms, but through video games.
History games have come a long way since Don Rawitsch, a Carleton College senior, introduced The Oregon Trail in 1971 to a group of Minnesota eighth graders.
Drawing upon incidents described in pioneer diaries and memoirs, that game inspired a host of emulators, including The Amazon Trail, The Yukon Trail and Westward Ho! Today, the video game industry is twice the size of Hollywood.
Sure, even serious games tend to be "Full of errors and oversimplifications," but as the classicist Marion Kruse quite rightly argues, games "Are antithetical to apathy."
Some of video games' biggest contributions to pedagogy and course design lie elsewhere.
Reference
Mintz, S. (2022, April 21). Can video games teach?: Inside higher ed. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/can-video-games-teach