Small Colleges and Digital Gaming: Collaboration and the State of Play Coalition for Networked Information, fall 2009 Bryan Alexander, NITLE

Plan of the session For the next hour, we control the horizontal and the vertical: 1.Gaming, teaching, liberal education: a 2009 snapshot 2.A taxonomy of practices, with selected examples 3.The role of NITLE 4.Futures, next steps, discussion, and futures: into 2010

Making the audience work already Quick note-taking: what are the two most salient uses of computer gaming in your institution?

I. Gaming and cultures, late 2009 Three key takeaways, for today: 1.Gaming as art and industry continues to develop and grow 2.Pedagogical uses unfolding 3.Liberal arts campus cases are now available, and practitioners are networking

Gaming’s pedagogical functions James Paul Gee Claims games offer pedagogical experiences (2003ff) Other experts follow suit: Marc Presnsky Henry Jenkins John Seely Brown Mia Consalvo Constance Steinkuehler Kurt Squire Hippasus Sample pedagogical principles: Semiotic domains; transference Embodied action and feedback Projective identity Edging the regime of competence (Vygotsky) Probe-reprobe cycle Social learning (roles; consumption-production) “Fish tank” tutorial Strategic self-assessment

Another summary Jason Mittell, Middlebury College: games are platforms for learning… Skills Simulations Media studies (psych, cultural studies, media) –NITLE brownbag, January 2008

How is gaming used now? Classroom and courses Curriculum content Delivery mechanism Creating games Peacemaker, Impact Games Revolution (via Jason Mittell)

Oiligarchy, Molle Industries DimensionM, Tabula Digita Jetset, Persuasive Games The Great Shakeout, California

Gaming as part of mainstream culture Median age of gamers shoots past 30 Industry size comparable to music Impacts on hardware, software, interfaces, other industries Large and growing diversity of platforms, topics, genres, niches, players

Gaming as part of mainstream culture Anecdata: Number of Facebook FarmVille players: 27,539,610 ( cations/leaderboard/, as of December 2009) cations/leaderboard/ (Casual games are more mainstream than most heavy-duty games)

Diversity of game genres American teenagers, Pew Internet, 2008

Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein, eds, Handbook of Computer Game Studies (MIT, 2005) Frans Mayra, An Introduction to Game Studies (Sage, 2008) Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, eds. Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives (MIT, 2009) Game studies as academic field

How is gaming used now? Libraries Collections Game night Creating games Defense of Hidgeon, Games Archive: University of Michigan

Maturing professional venues

Making the audience work some more Return to your earlier note-taking, and compare notes with people near you: where on campus are you seeing this? And where might you see more in ‘10?

Gaming and liberal education What are the intersections? Shared: classic academic concerns Pedagogical uses Support Tenure/promotion Fears Image: Bryn Mawr College, Michael Toler

Gaming and liberal education And what is liberal education, again? Learning for learning's sake Pedagogy (active learning, faculty/student collab. etc) Democratic, engaged citizenship/leadership Specific institutional type -Jo Ellen Parker, 2008 Scripps College library

II. A taxonomy of practices Liberal arts uses Gettysburg, Hope, Depauw

II. A taxonomy of current practices 1.Faculty research 2.Faculty/staff game creation 3.Classes and learning A.Professional games delivering learning content B.“ “ “ objects of study C.Students creating game content D.“ “ games

1. Faculty research Harry Brown, Depauw University (M.E. Sharpe, 2008) Part I: Poetics –Chapter 1: Videogames and Storytelling –Chapter 2: Videogame Aesthetics –Chapter 3: Videogames and Film Part II: Rhetoric –Chapter 4: Politics, Persuasion, and Propaganda in Videogames –Chapter 5: The Ethics of Videogames –Chapter 6: Religion and Myth in Videogames Part III: Pedagogy –Chapter 7: Videogames, History, and Education –Chapter 8: Identity and Community in Virtual Worlds –Chapter 9: Modding, Education, and Art

2. Faculty/staff game creation Valley Sim, Christian Spielvogel (Hope College): MMOG American Civil War simulation based on primary documents already in digital archive (Valley of the Shadow) MMOG: Players experience and debate the war’s epochal events as avatars based on the lives of residents from two wartime communities

2. Faculty/staff game creation Trinity University library: ARG

2. Faculty/staff game creation Dickinson College, class on empires: game modding

3A: Games as learning content Shalom Staub, Assistant Provost for Academic Affairs, Dickinson College: Conflict Resolution course Peacemaker: “integrate and apply the concepts and strategies that you will encounter elsewhere in the course.”

3A: Games as learning content Todd Bryant, Dickinson College: teaching German with World of Warcraft “If the game provides authentic language content and requires communication in order to progress through the game—and our students are willing to spend hours of their time immersed in this environment— we can greatly increase not only their overall exposure to the language but their motivation to learn as well.”

3B: Games as objects of study Aaron Delwiche, Trinity University: COMM 3344, interactive multimedia (Spring 2006)

3C: Students creating game content Chris Fee, Gettysburg: Interactive Fiction (2007-)

3D: Students creating games Venatio Creo, Ursinus College

III. The role of NITLE Nonprofit, working to advance technology in liberal education

NITLE programs Professional development (workshops, videoconferencing) NITLE Network Several venues (NITLE-IT, Summit) Research Exploration of field Publications Blogging Network facilitation Game co-creation –ARG (ELI 2009) –Web game (futures market)

The gaming initiative Web 2.0 networking Conference (Dickinson, 2007) Workshop (Bryn Mawr, 2008)

The gaming initiative And: MIV sessions (starting 2008) Presentations (CNI, Educause, NITLE Summit, NMC ) Publications ( Alvarado, Alexander, Bryant) “Overcoming the Fear of Gaming: A Strategy for Incorporating Games into Teaching and Learning.” EDUCAUSE Quarterly Magazine, Volume 31, Number

The gaming network Faculty involved from: Albion College Austin College Depauw University Dickinson College Gettysburg College Hope College Middlebury College Swarthmore College Trinity University (Texas) Ursinus College Vassar College

The gaming network Disciplines include: Anthropology Communication English History International relations Languages Media studies NB: strong emphasis on humanities and non-quantitative social sciences, so far

We launch one game NITLE prediction markets (

More social media strategies Diigo group ( s.diigo.com/g roup/gaming -and-the- liberal-arts) s.diigo.com/g roup/gaming -and-the- liberal-arts

More social media strategies NITLE blogging,

Lessons learned? What supports intercampus collaboration for educational gaming? Strength in diversity (disciplines, regions, projects, sectors) Supernodes make the network workshop (the Dickinson movement) Low barriers to entry are crucial Educational examples are essential

IV. What next? What else is possible for teaching and learning with games, based on practice outside of the classroom? “Computer games as liberal arts? Educators who teach kids to make their own video games are on education's cutting edge.” (CNN, 2008) ostversion=

More current options Already in use in other.edu sectors: Machinima for video production Information/media fluency curricula More modding (ex: Civ IV mod)

Exploring no- and low-cost games further “Nanw’s Adventure”, National Library of Wales ( )

What next in liberal arts gaming? Looking into 2010: Diigo group continues (68 items so far) Ruthless blogging NITLE prediction market trades, grows Reaching out to more schools and organizations

What next in liberal arts gaming? Looking into 2010: Iterations and new projects for spring classes Reacting to the Past interest (Pearson) Mobile gaming pilots (Vassar) Repurposing gaming tools for visualization (machinima), computing power, presentation (Wii remote) Involvement from sciences

Liberal Education Tomorrow blog Prediction Markets game Diigo group and-the-liberal-arts and-the-liberal-arts NITLE