Developing Design Literacies Through Play

Ben Aslinger · Nina Huntemann

Wed., June 09, 2:00–3:00, Old Madison

A rich and growing body of work in play theory provides educators with ample pedagogical theory about the utility of games and game play in formal and informal instructional environments. James Paul Gee (2007) widely popularized the idea that games can be successfully used to teach critical thinking as well as social and personal development skills. Henry Jenkins (2006) points to games, along with other digital media, as the mechanisms by which young people are learning the “new media literacies” required to become full participants in a globally networked society. In this paper, we extend research questions about games and pedagogy into the game studies classroom, examining our attempts to use play to teach core game design and game studies concepts.

We designed three missions: 1) Turning Places into Spaces, 2) Vectors of Movement, and 3) Meet Me, My Avatar. In mission 1, students worked in pairs, re-creating physical Boston locations as play spaces. In turning locations into game maps, students had to decide how to guide players through the public space, specify how the player should travel through the space, what they wished the player to focus on (architecture, history, flora, etc.), and the purposes behind why the player was navigating the space in question. Mission 2 was designed to illustrate concepts of pervasive games and embodied play via a Boston Common rope race. Students in groups of four met at agreed upon times in the Boston Common for a time trial rope race in which they had to negotiate which member would fulfill the function of leader and which members would accept specific physical constraints. In mission 3, designed to get students to think about identity construction and representation in games, students worked alone to create an avatar (which would later be incorporated into the final project game pitch). Each student came to class dressed as their avatar and constructed a background character sketch.

Integrating missions into a 13-week semester presented several challenges. All of the missions required work outside of class time and involved coordinating schedules among students and the instructor. Other issues included transportation concerns, initial student resistance, weather conditions, varying knowledge of software and Boston area geography, and occasional difficulties in moving beyond game design clichés. Students were given latitude in how to approach, interpret, and execute each mission. Some students used software programs such as Adobe PhotoShop to create digital versions of their avatars; however, the missions could also be accomplished using simply paper and a pen.

Through these missions, we sought to help students develop design literacies without having to (or having the resources to) teach programming languages. Coupled with other elements of the course, students were able to balance media studies and political economic critiques of game industries, design communities, and representation with creative exercises designed to encourage students to contemplate and question the contemporary state of gaming cultures.

References

Gee, J.P. (2007). Good video games and good learning: Collected essays on video games, learning and literacy. New York: Peter Lang.

Jenkins, H. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Chicago, IL: MacArthur Foundation.