An Hour Of Play

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. -Plato

An Hour of Play: An Introduction to Video Game Literacy

Not sure if games are good or bad for us? Not sure how much of what you hear is hype and how much is real? Want to know what it is that has your students so pre-occupied? For many of today’s generation, digital games are replacing television as leisure activity and hype about games for learning in school settings is once again increasing. Digital games have become at least as much a part of our culture as television was to previous generations and so, it behooves us to become familiar with the medium, but where can a novice go to get some experience? Games are no longer trivial so how are we to know where to start? Come join me in this two part tutorial and get a first-hand look at some of the games of interest to educators and see how Serious Games are having an impact on teaching and learning. Part one will introduce you to the field of serious games, some of what we already know about how games teach and some of the challenges to the use of games in the classroom. Part two will offer participants a hands-on opportunity to gain game literacy.

Participants will come away from this tutorial with:

• An overview of some of the advantages and challenges associated with the use of digital games in the classroom.
• An increased ability to talk about video games from an informed perspective to form new connections between today’s learners and teachers.

Participants will have an opportunity to:

• Become familiar with some of the game terminology and genres of digital games.
• Be introduced to specific games of potential interest in educational contexts.
• Learn how to play a selection of popular ‘E’ and ‘T’ rated games with other novices.