Recent years have witnessed unforeseen leaps in technology, which many have argued are
ushering in a new media paradigm (Games, Learning, and Society, 2005/2007). Video games are
an excellent site to examine in order to understand this new medium, because games are natively
digital. Video games are emblematic of the current popular culture we live in that has a
distinctive zeitgeist. Examining games, we see three overriding themes that demarcate the
modern media landscape:Video games are built around a logic of simulation, one that is about
possible worlds, rather than inspiring oratory, coherent linear arguments, or purely visual
imagery. Games are worlds we explore, and learn within, through interaction and performance.
Video games are participatory, in that players have the opportunity to shape the medium itself
through (a) production within game worlds (many of which are filmed and published on the
Internet), (b) production with game tools (such as modding), and (c) gaining membership in
affinity groups, such as gaming clans, guilds, clubs, and so on, to support one’s gaming. Video
games provide an aesthetic experience. Video games offer us opportunities to do new things and
take on identities that are unavailable in the real world. As Galarneau writes, their potential
impact in education may be best thought of as producing transformative experience (Galarneau,
2005 GLS Proc.).
A mature theory of game-based learning, we argue, will take into account the underlying
principles by which they work as learning environments “naturalistically”, or “in the wild,” to
borrow Hutchins’s (Hutchins, 1995) term. Modern video games, with their myriad of toolkits for
modding and interface editing, have increasingly evolved from being compelling mediums that
merely engage users passively into spaces (and communities) that empower users to willfully
create and disseminate content (Jenkins & Squire 2003; Steinkuehler & Johnson, this volume).
As such, video games are not only a pervasive popular culture media, but also form some of the
central discourses around 21
st
century pedagogical practices and what it means to teach or learn
in a globalized future. The growing body of literature around video games and learning suggests
that games are powerful models for teaching and can potentially affect how people can and ought
to learn in the ever-changing landscape of knowledge (Shaffer & Gee, 2006,). A key challenge
that remains for educators is how to produce pedagogical models that leverage the strengths of
the medium, yet meet educationally valued goals. Restated, we know that players learn through
participation in MMOs such as World of Warcraft (Steinkuehler, 2005, Nardi et.al, forthcoming
Proc., Galarneau 2006), and that educational interventions that use game technologies (such as
networked 3D worlds) can be effective, but how might we harness the simulation, participatory,
and aesthetic dimensions of games for intentional learning?
This paper will examine the potential of video games as a learning tool given their productive
capacity for content creation and dissemination. Using the Civilization III game engine (a turnbased historical simulation-strategy game), it explores whether a group of disadvantaged kids
playing a series of historically themed scenarios can become the kind of “producers” of media
and knowledge described by Squire and Giovanetto (in press). It seeks to build on the
participatory nature of gaming communities (most often virtual) which function for many players
as “third spaces” – spaces that emerge out of coherent and shared history of information and tend
to perpetuate game practices beyond virtual game worlds and foster social interactions beyond homes and workplaces (Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006). As of this writing, our community is
primarily face-to-face, although we are exploring ways to extend the community into virtual
spaces as well.