ERIC Number: EJ1162579
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 7
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1085-3545
EISSN: N/A
A Problem of Play for Democratic Education? Abstraction, Realism, and Exploration in Learning Games. A Response to "The Challenges of Gaming for Democratic Education: The Case of iCivics"
DeVane, Benjamin
Democracy & Education, v25 n2 Article 11 2017
In this review article, I argue that games are complementary, not self-supporting, learning tools for democratic education because they can: (a) offer "simplified, but often not simple, outlines" (later called "models") of complex social systems that generate further inquiry; (b) provide "practice spaces" for exploring systems that do not have the often serious consequences of taking direct and immediate social, civic, and legal action; and (c) use rules to allow players to explore this aforementioned outline or model by "making decisions and seeing an outcome." To make these arguments, I perform a close reading of three examples of participatory and playful media that could be germane to, but are not designed for, educational settings: the early-20th-century board game "The Landlord's Game," YouTube videos advising about law enforcement encounters, and the dystopian indie game "Papers, Please." [For "The Challenges of Gaming for Democratic Education: The Case of iCivics," see EJ1120056.]
Descriptors: Play, Educational Games, Democracy, Civics, Citizenship Education, Video Games, Supplementary Education, Technology Uses in Education, Educational Technology, Learner Engagement, Decision Making, Social Problems, College Students, Protocol Analysis, Design, Teaching Methods, Affective Behavior
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative; Opinion Papers
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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