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August 18, 2003
Games as Elite Knowledge
The <a href="http://chronicle.com/">Chronicle of Higher Education</a> recently ran an article titled "<a href="http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i49/49a03101.htm">Can Grand Theft Auto Inspire Professors?</a>". It is a very thorough run through of the study of games, games for education and other such academicy things. It is a surprisingly unbiased (if positive) piece in a publication billed as the "No. 1 news source for college and university faculty members and administrators". Nice.
A large portion of the article centers around professor James Paul Gee (whom <a href="http://www.igda.org/blogs/realitypanic/archives/000022.html">I've written about</a> in the past and is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403961697/">this great book</a>), and his theories on games and education. It is fun to read about his vocal critics. One in particular states that "...if [Gee] thinks that playing some goddamn video game is the equivalent of memorizing a Shakespeare soliloquy, that's crazy."
And, since I was never a big fan of memorizing Shakespeare, Gee's response is right on: "It's not the equivalent. It's more the equivalent of being able to produce a play, of being able to make up poetry. I think people ought to produce things rather than memorize."
Anyway, all this plays into Gee's notions of learning and doing, interacting and emoting, etc, etc.
Even with all the work the IGDA is doing to <a href="http://www.igda.org/academia/">build bridges with academics</a>, there's still a (somewhat diminishing) sense that games are not worthy or are trivial. Well, Gee warns that "Shakespeare in its time was popular entertainment, and that the elite looked down upon it. We all know that some of the things that kids know now will be elite knowledge."
Imagine a few hundred years from now. Games as "elite knowledge". Interesting. (Hmm, but does bring back the <a href="http://www.igda.org/blogs/realitypanic/archives/000033.html">question of preservation</a>...)
In related news, industry grand-daddy <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/news/950369.asp">Nolan Bushnell hints</a> to Atari's designs targeting a flow state... Too bad he always has to come down hard on violent games. Oh well. And, always fun to read about a <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/all/gamespotting/081703covertops/4.html">gamer's view on the effects</a> of all this.
Posted by della at August 18, 2003 12:47 AM
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Comments
You are of course aware of the gaming center at itu.dk, and of Game Studies, at gamestudies.org? And the DAC-conferences, where games have been represented and discussed since 1998, just to mention a few areas of academic acceptance?
Over the last year the number of articles written on games, the number of universities and colleges offering courses and the number of researchers writing about games has grown at an amazing rate. I'd say this is a sign that games as an academic field of study has been accepted. The resistance we experience now is the common resistance in Academia to all change. Academic institutions are by nature conservative, as they are supposed to be the conservers of the ancient and arcane lore...
Not that I think this is a reason to stop studying games. But it is perhaps time to stop saying it's not accepted, and rather say that it's a new and quickly expanding field?
Posted by: Torill at August 19, 2003 03:11 AM
There's no doubt many still see game as a non-mainstream of education. We can't deny the fact that, in games, fun is an important element, which is contrast to the seriousness of academia. The ironic part is that we are suppose to learn most when we play...
I agree in a more positive outlook of game studies as a new and quickly expanding field. Just got to sustain it till it become permanent...
Just worthy of mention,
Beside writing and studying about game, the use of games in education has its history. [And I'm not just talking about simulations]. One good example is MUD as a platform for students collabration and imaginative creation. ( See <a href="http://kubrick.cdes.qut.edu.au:7000/">http://kubrick.cdes.qut.edu.au:7000/</a> ) I must say that people in academia are embracing games' potential...
Posted by: plf at September 15, 2003 04:28 AM