Quote: "Game design involves knowledge and skills from multiple contributors: producer, artist, programmer, interactivity designer, sound engineer, and tester....In short, designing a game requires players to equip themselves with critical literacy rather than just funcitonal literacy: The former literacy demands a much higher level of cognitive skills than would be the case with simply playing a game."
Comment: The evolution from player to designer will occur only IF players learn the critical skills necessary. This creates the conundrum of "which came first, the chicken or the egg..." If it takes good game design to develop the essential critical literacy skills then how to we get the critical literacy skills in the first place? Fortunately the evolution of video games from the earliest days has been extremely progressive. Early progress was slow, but it too has grown exponentially. Just 5 years ago, when my son looked at schools to study game design he was sorely disappointed in the availability of programs. Not only were programs scarce, they were expensive. That too has changed.
Resource: The Princeton Review has this to say about education in video game design.
The players of today, will become the educators and players of tomorrow. The resources available to learn the technical sklls will continue to grow and some schools will excel in providing quality education in the development of both recreational and educational games.
Citations:
Hsu, H., & Wang, S. (2009). Using game literacies to cultivate new literacies. Simulation & Gaming, 41(3), 400-417. doi: 10.1177/1046878109355361
Ioving, D (2012). Top video game design press release. Princeton Review. 2012. Hsu, H., & Want, S. (2009). Using game literacies to cultivate new literacies. http://www.princetonreview.com/game-design-press-release.aspx
It is amazing how gaming in impacting our entire culture! The video game industry has finally been able to make Educational Psychology cool!
ReplyDeleteIt is neat to see the gaming evolution unfold before our eyes.
ReplyDeleteI am both a gamer and designer of software so I am in the middle of the pack for your comments. Software design is becoming more and more user friendly so the ideas of gamers are being integrated into games faster now that ever before.
ReplyDeleteI like the quote you picked because it shows how much thinking and planning goes into game design. It is a great way for students to develop literacy skills in technology. It is also a great motivator for students; I can't imagine any child not being excited to design their very own video game.
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful quote. You have displayed the complex thought processes a student must develop in order to create a game. Educational systems are always asking teachers to design lessons that require a higher level of thinking - you have provided the solution here through this quote.
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