CyberGame Pedagogy

I found this assignment to be very interesting. When looking at the name “CyperGame,” I got very excited. I have always been a lover of video games, not as an adult but as a child I loved to play Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. There is something about playing a video game that takes your body from reality to fantasy and sometimes this a “good thing.” However, sometimes this can be very wrong. This is why I am excited and interested however curious as to how the final outcome would be.

Researching and going through the games offered were fun and there was a lot to choose from, I clicked on gamesforchange.org and immediately was attracted to the subject, “Art & Empathy” which had a lot to offer. Over twenty games to choose from, I first clicked on Mission, had a great story you had to read before playing the game. The game is about four gentlemen from The Ottawa Mission; the game is about the experience that each one had on this mission. It takes you on a journey a tale of three significant milestones from their lives. Each level has a sentimental value to that creator of that level. The Ottawa Mission shows how in 2011 over 7,000 people in this area were homeless; the video game is the summary on view from four of those homeless residents. The controls were rather easy to use on the game, it was simply the up and down arrow and you control a sneaker going throughout the journey of four affected by the devastation that left them homeless.

In researching and playing this game it was amazing to realize how much time and effort goes into making a game. The Mission game had four artists, two game developers and four project support staff. I know it doesn’t seem like much for a smaller game like this it is quite amazing how many people were involved. In realizing this, it made me think about the larger games, referred to the beginning of when I was a child and would play Donkey Kong or Mario Bros. and how exactly how much time went into that.

The second game I played and really enjoyed was, Dys4ia. This game was based off of a personal experience once again similar to that of the Mission, however this dealt with the frustrations of hormone replaced therapy and the struggles that she had to deal with in becoming a woman. I found this video game my favorite and the most interesting because it was an autobiography made into a cyber game. The levels were based on the timeline of this experience in her life. The levels that really caught my eye were, CORRECT CLOTHING…is there such thing as correct clothing. Its crazy to think that the clothing we were puts us in the gender role of a man or a woman. The CALLING NAMES was the next level, changing your name to be that of the gender you identify with and how people don’t understand that. The action figure in the video game is walking along while other cyber figures were calling out, “Hi Sir, How you doing Sir?” Another level showed the razor going across the face of an individual that is growing facial hair and getting rid of it in order to once again identify with that gender, and lastly a figure is jumping through hoops…literally because that is what she had to do to get to where is currently is in life.

Dys4ia to me as the viewer and video player on this end was so interesting and engaging. In the Mission I didn’t realize the amount of work that went into making a video and in Dys4ia it made me realize that a video game can become so much more than just a “fun” game, but a rude awakening into someone’s life about them and in that telling a story. Maybe it is easier for an individual to express and tell a story about their life in setting more than writing a book or sharing a speech. So all in all it opened my eyes that yes video games can be fun but also very interesting and educational and tell a story similar to that of on hands engagement of a documentary living through the screen of the player.

In reading Johannes Fromme’s article, Computer Games as a Part of Children’s Culture, it is reality that in todays age of our society technology and video games play a major role in children’s lives Its stated in the article, “This cultural and social significance of electronic games, I propose, also is pedagogically relevant, because any educational or teaching effort which aims at mediating so-called "media competency," computer literacy, or ICT skills is preceded by informal and non-formal learning processes of children within their "computer gaming culture." About 20 years ago Patricia M. Greenfield discussed possible effects of new media (Greenfield, 1984). The effects are enormous on the younger generation of today; it is integrated into a lot of classrooms and in homework assignments. This is the today that we live in. We as teachers need to see this and possibly stream it into our assignments to possibly have the students understand more and have fun while doing it.

In the video games and in the readings I did for this assignment immediately I felt compelled to make a video game about art history. Art history can be a very “boring” lecture class for many. I figured changing the class around every once in a while with a video game on the time period we are working or in the past would allow for a form of studying. The majority of the time students have to take packets home to work on or do a study guide, how great would it be if I made a game that proves to me they know the artwork. I propose the name of the game would be, “Name that piece!” There would be sections of the artwork up on the screen with pieces missing and others added that aren’t suppose to be there, the student than has a “art bank” where they can pull parts of the piece of and add it to the current work that are examining. This would allow them to know only identify the artwork but know the sections of the piece more in depth that they have to visual circulate the whole thing.

References:

-Fromme, J. (2003). Computer Games as Part of Children's Culture

-Keifer-Boyd, K. (2005). Children teaching children with their computer game creations. Visual Arts Research, 60(1), 117-128.

-http://www.gamesforchange.org/play

Lesson Plan

North Hunterdon High School

Zena Kirby

Advanced Placement Art History

Lesson: Name that Piece! (game)

NJ Standards: 1.2.2.A.1, 1.2.2.A.2 I and 1.2.5.A.3

Objective: The students will use this video game as a study guide for the artworks studied currently and in the past by identifying sections of the artwork and using the “art bank” to grab other sections that are missing to complete the piece.

Background Information for Teacher: The background information will be currently up to date artworks that are currently being focused on in class or in the past for a grade instead of a study guide or study packet. I will have lecture on all the pieces prior to generating the game for them.

Materials and Resources: Students will have access to the video game only at home, it will be blocked on the computers in school for them to use their own time to study and in a comfortable atmosphere outside of the school setting.

Goals: Students will gain knowledge on being able to really get close to the sections of the artwork that are missing in order to fully understand the artwork more in depth than they would out of reading from a book or a slide lecture in class. I feel that this will better prepare the students for the tests on the chapters lecture prior to the assignment being given to them.

Assessment: The assessment will be based of the final test scores. The scores will be on a 100-point level grading system.