Quotes in this entry are from the following article:
http://www.advance.uconn.edu/2007/070416/07041607.htm
This article is about a teacher, Roger Travis, who uses video games to help teach classical literature. I find this to be quite a creative approach. He uses something many students are interested in, Halo, to help them understand something they may not be as interested in, Virgil’s epic poem, Aeneid. I think it’s a great idea to use video games to teach. Even if some students are not interested in video games, they will likely pay attention because they find the idea of video games in the classroom intriguing. I especially like how Travis describes the similarities between video games and ancient oral storytelling:
“In a paper on the subject, Travis argues that video games ‘bring back to life an essential part of the sort of storytelling to be found in the epic tradition of the Homeric bards.’”
“Both tales toss their readers – or players – into the middle of the story and demand a certain interaction from them.
For the ancient bard, the interactive aspect comes from the audience being immersed in the tale and anticipating what will happen next.
For the gamer, the interactivity includes not just joystick manipulation; the player can also elect to slip into the role of any of several characters or to play one section of the game versus another.”
I hope to see more video game implementation to education in the future. It’s important to capture the attention of students, video games usually do that quite well. Perhaps we will see a time when students have to be pulled away from their homework and told to go outside and get some fresh air.
