education & pedagogy

Syllabi: Teaching with & about Games

“Courses cover game development and design, but also treat games as a topic in fields such as computer science, history, media studies, and rhetoric. In other words, video games are not just an economic force (they make lots of money and so we should teach students to make them) nor are they only a psychological force (games teach people violence and so we need to study policy to limit them); they are also a cultural and creative force, and courses are cropping up that attend to games in this particular framework…This special issue of the Syllabus Journal, then, offers a multi-disciplinary approach to video game studies.” – Issue Overview

How I Teach Game Design

“Why should you read some blog post about how someone teaches? I started out wanting to write a series of essays in order to share my teaching techniques – syllabi and readings, concepts and methods, exercises and assignments. However, early on in the process I realized that I was not just writing about how to teach game design. These short pieces are really about how to learn game design.” – Eric Zimmerman

A psychologically “embedded” approach to designing games for prosocial causes

“This paper provides an in-depth exploration of two key Embedded Design strategies: (1) intermixing: combining “on-topic” and “off-topic” game content in order to make the focal message or theme less obvious and more accessible and (2) obfuscating: using game genres or framing devices that direct players’ attention or expectations away from the game’s true aims…” – Geoff Kaufman & Mary Flanagan

Video Games as Feminist Pedagogy

“This article argues that video games are powerful but overlooked tools for feminist pedagogy. I review two game-based teaching activities that I conducted with my Introduction to Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies course during my time as a Teaching Associate at Emory University. In the first activity, I opened a transgender studies unit with the independent games dys4ia, Lim and Mainichi. In the second activity, I taught the feminist theory of intersectionality through Halo, a popular first-person shooter series.” – Samantha Allen

Game-Based Learning

“We don’t need more time in the classroom to learn how to think and perform in the face of real-world challenges. We need effective, interactive experiences that motivate and actively engage us in the learning process. This is where game-based learning comes in.” – Game-Based Learning, New Media Institute

LGBTQ On Campus

“LGBTQ On Campus Faculty & Staff and LGBTQ On Campus Students are online, interactive courses that help faculty, staff and students in creating a safer, more inclusive campus for LGBTQ students. This includes how to respond to biased comments, supporting a student who comes out, recognizing signs of psychological distress and how best to connect students to appropriate campus resources and services.” – Kognito