Discussion Questions — Week 7

February 16, 2008 at 4:41 pm (Discussion questions)

  1. In his discussion of video games being considered a “waste of time,” Gee addresses the “problem of content.”  He mentions that in academic environments, entire subject areas are often focused on content only, with little practical application of how that content functions in its social context.  What are your thoughts on his criticisms of the typical approach to content learning in schools?   Is it true that, as Gee states, focus on “doing” rather than “content” is often interpreted as too “permissive?”  For those of you who are teachers, how much emphasis do you place in the classroom on content rather than the practice and implementation of the content within its larger context?  Which was emphasized in classrooms when you were a student in elementary or high school?  Do you think the focus is shifting to include more “doing” as opposed to strictly content?
  2.  Bogost addresses “persuasive games,” showing that video games can be approached and analyzed in terms of rhetoric – examining messages and arguments made which have larger applications to the “way systems work in the material world” (47).    Aside from “educational” video games, how might video games be employed to teach students skills/concepts which relate to the systems at work in a broader social context?  In other words, besides being used just as skins through which to present content, what specific skills might video games teach students which could then be applied to other contexts (behavioral/social/etc.)?  Are these skills learnable through all types of video games, or only certain types of video games?
  3.  Regarding the discussion of differing types of literacy in Gee’s article – how is multimodal literacy approached in the field of rhetorical studies today?  Gee’s article was written in 2003.  Is there still as much of a privileging of “traditional” literacy over other forms of literacy?  How do the concepts of visual, digital, procedural, and semiotic literacy function in relation to the field of rhetorical studies today? 

 –Crystal Crawford  

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