Schools Are Setting Videogames as Required Coursework

Recommended Videos

McMullen

New member
Mar 9, 2010
1,334
0
0
sid said:
SonicWaffle said:
Steven Bogos said:
How long will it be before we are studying Half-Life instead of Hamlet in high school English classes?
I'm not sure that's such a great idea. I have a deep and abiding loathing for every work of literature I was forced to study, to suck all the ejoyment out of and analyse in boring and simplistic terms, reading and re-reading because the rest of the class were so slow I'd have finished the book long before anyone else.

Do we really want to ruin videogames for kids in the same way?
yeah I was about to say. The school system has finally found a way to discourage any and all gaming experiences. Nothing like "You need to play a 12 hour marathon of CoD and take notes on your experience, due tomorrow" to make sure nobody plays CoD ever again

In fact, is there anything more alienating and demoralizing than having to dissect a piece of literature for school?
Some of us have found a greater appreciation for certain works after analyzing them for a class, even if we'd read or seen it several times previously. The problem is that the most commonly chosen works tend to be incredibly dull and irrelevant for kids/teenagers. Shakespeare and Bronte are definitely acquired tastes, and making them mandatory most often results in contempt for them and written works in general. In this respect the schools fail utterly to generate an appreciation for reading or the classics. They would accomplish more by doing nothing.
 

Alssadar

Senior Member
Sep 19, 2010
812
0
21
As games develop, I think this is a cool way to get students interested in topics. To live and feel the stories, instead of simply read them. While I do enjoy a good book, I'll never remember that encounter that one character had with that demon, but I totally remember my first fight with a Controller in STALKER. It puts some things in perspective, about how one experiences things, of how things can cling to you, no matter how much you have left them behind. You can leave the Zone, but the Zone will never leave you.

I never preferred History much, I mean, it was easy, but that's all about it was. When I started playing games like Total War and Crusader Kings, I wanted to know much more about the topics, and now I am a historical hotspot of information (mainly on western European history).
 

Micalas

New member
Mar 5, 2011
793
0
0
Really Offensive Name said:
It was only a matter of time.

I remember asking one my teacher in high school if I could use Halo as my supporting material. She said yes after my initial description, and then changed her mind when I mentioned it was a video game.

I'm surprised it's taken this long actually, as that was 8 years ago.
That's just unfortunate. The medium shouldn't be an issue! All it does is decide how the material is delivered.

This would be like being told you're hired after a grueling interview and then having it promptly pulled back because you drive a Prius. "But you hired MEEEE, the Prius just gets me here."
 

sid

New member
Jan 22, 2013
180
0
0
McMullen said:
Some of us have found a greater appreciation for certain works after analyzing them for a class, even if we'd read or seen it several times previously. The problem is that the most commonly chosen works tend to be incredibly dull and irrelevant for kids/teenagers. Shakespeare and Bronte are definitely acquired tastes, and making them mandatory most often results in contempt for them and written works in general. In this respect the schools fail utterly to generate an appreciation for reading or the classics. They would accomplish more by doing nothing.
Well, it would make sense to achieve a greater appreciation for something you already appreciate by default. Being tossed a copy of Macbeth and being told it has an even more complex meaning than the already threatening Elizabethan era English will probably feel a little too overwhelming for most students. I'm not saying that they couldn't handle the coursework, I'm saying they wouldn't want to. I wonder how much someone would be able to enjoy, say, Bastion, if they had to hit pause every 5 steps for a description of the political reasoning of that one floating boulder.
 

McMullen

New member
Mar 9, 2010
1,334
0
0
sid said:
I wonder how much someone would be able to enjoy, say, Bastion, if they had to hit pause every 5 steps for a description of the political reasoning of that one floating boulder.
They probably wouldn't enjoy it very much, because it would be as ridiculous as you tried to make it sound. Sadly, that example is not a strawman, but an accurate description of what terrible (and, unfortunately, common) English teachers often do. When analysis has helped me enjoy a work more, it has been a more open format. Instead of micromanaging the experience, the good teachers ask you to make an argument based on the whole work and let you choose what you use to back it up. In this way, I actually managed to find Camus' The Stranger worthwhile, even though I wouldn't go as far as saying I enjoyed it, and certainly wouldn't have read it without the class. But I did appreciate it, which means that professor knew what he was doing.
 

Zipa

batlh bIHeghjaj.
Dec 19, 2010
1,489
0
0
Hmm this reminds me of my old Geography teacher, he was trying to get Civ 3 into his classroom to use it as a fun aid to teach. It all came about where he saw the big ass manual that I was carrying around at the time. I never did find out if he got it into his classroom or not but I hope he did.
 

Zeldias

New member
Oct 5, 2011
282
0
0
I wanted to try something similar in my classes, but you can't really know what students have access to and what they don't. You sure they have internet to even purchase the game? Do they have a computer? If so, is their computer a shared computer, so they won't always be able to use it (because it's hard for me to buy that a lot of parents will happily see the merit in kids playing video games for homework if the kids are commuting from home (which many did at the colleges I taught at)). How are you gonna prepare them to consider the game as a text and extract meaning from it instead of just plainly having fun? What if a kid gets stuck and just cannot defeat a boss?

When I was previously teaching college, I didn't have good answers to all of these questions, so I didn't try it. I've always like the idea, I've just wondered about the application.
 

klaynexas3

My shoes hurt
Dec 30, 2009
1,525
0
0
Steven Bogos said:
In order to get their diplomas, students at Olds College must complete a Farmville-style iPad game: Lemonade Stand
You can leave right now. Lemonade Stand as a game has been around for at least a decade now(most likely longer), so to compare it to that trash that is Famville is disgusting.

Anyway, maybe I should get around to playing Sword and Sorcery. I haven't had much interest, but I do own it, and I played the first session of it. It was kind of interesting, but nothing ground breaking or anything, at least from that first session. I should try it again.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
24,759
0
0
Zipa said:
Hmm this reminds me of my old Geography teacher, he was trying to get Civ 3 into his classroom to use it as a fun aid to teach. It all came about where he saw the big ass manual that I was carrying around at the time. I never did find out if he got it into his classroom or not but I hope he did.
We only got games like Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail! You kids have it so easy!

>.>
 

Zipa

batlh bIHeghjaj.
Dec 19, 2010
1,489
0
0
Zachary Amaranth said:
Zipa said:
Hmm this reminds me of my old Geography teacher, he was trying to get Civ 3 into his classroom to use it as a fun aid to teach. It all came about where he saw the big ass manual that I was carrying around at the time. I never did find out if he got it into his classroom or not but I hope he did.
We only got games like Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail! You kids have it so easy!

>.>
He never got it while I was at the school, that was 10 years ago so anything could of happened now.
 

Saidan

New member
Aug 22, 2013
69
0
0
Great idea. I would suggest The Binding of Issac for the Religion class.
 

BarkBarker

New member
May 30, 2013
466
0
0
Anything you must analyse and break apart becomes unenjoyable for that very reason, it's the same stupid idea with people testing games, what game do you love that you HAVE to play, and HAVE to play hundreds of times? Please, let them enjoy it in peace, but on the plus side, the likelihood of already having played the study material puts a lot of them ahead of the non gaming kids, so who knows what's gonna happen there.
 

Charli

New member
Nov 23, 2008
3,445
0
0
SonicWaffle said:
Steven Bogos said:
How long will it be before we are studying Half-Life instead of Hamlet in high school English classes?
I'm not sure that's such a great idea. I have a deep and abiding loathing for every work of literature I was forced to study, to suck all the ejoyment out of and analyse in boring and simplistic terms, reading and re-reading because the rest of the class were so slow I'd have finished the book long before anyone else.

Do we really want to ruin videogames for kids in the same way?
That's the fault of the person teaching you. Not the subject matter. I was taught Hamlet twice in my student career. Once by an aging, bitter old lady who really didn't want to be teaching anyone, anything and cared more about results than the students achieving those results and another time by a bright eyed, driven and passionate teacher who was absolutely enthralled by everything he spoke and discussed with his students, even those who were behind could get wrapped up in the deviations and discussions.

The second time around with Hamlet, I GOT it, I understood just a bit why people were so enthusiastic about Shakesphere's work. And it was startling how contrasted to the first time I was 'taught'. So... to be honest, if something is going to get taught, then the subject matter isn't important, it's who is teaching it. Always. You can only 'ruin' a subject by being taught it wrong, and to me that sounds very wrong. You help the slower kids after the lesson is over if they need it, don't slow down the ones who are excelling.