August 27, 2003
Game studies hits the academic mainstream
The Chronicle of Higher Education is hosting an online chat on video games in the classroom today at 2:00pm EST. They are asking the questions:
Are video games a valid academic field of research? Will video games one day become a teaching tool in the classroom, alongside textbooks and other traditional media? Or are video games yet another distraction leading students and instructors away from quiet, concentrated study and time-honored teaching methods?
The Chronicle’s latest issue has articles on games studies.
August 27th, 2003 at 1:09 pm
Note that the questions “Are video games a valid academic field of research?” and “Will video games one day become a teaching tool in the classroom?” have nothing at all to do with one another. Sculpture can be a valid academic field of research (for art historians, for instance) even if we don’t ever use sculptures as teaching tools in the classroom. I happen to think that both are true – video games both can be teaching tools and they are worthy of scholarship – but these are two separate issues. They just happen to be confusingly juxtaposed here so as to suggest that they are related.
August 28th, 2003 at 5:10 pm
Hmm… well, given that the intended readership of The Chronicle is mostly college professors (and administrators and advanced grad students on the job market, of course), I think the “are video games yet another distraction” can be construed to mean “distraction from established subjects and modes of research that tenure committess traditionally reward as well as from from traditional teaching methods.”
Yes, the juxtaposition is a bit heavy-handed, but the text cited is a marketing teaser designed to attract people with strong opinions. I’m not defending the accuracy of the text, I’m simply pointing out that its purpose is (sadly) not to be accurate but to generate a response.
Incidentally, and apropos of nothing at all, it’s 5:52 by my watch, but the datestamp for the post reads 5:10.
August 28th, 2003 at 7:04 pm
The transcript of the chat can be found here.