NITLE Event: Global Knowledge Through Gaming

November 12, 4:00pm - 5:15pm

Teaching about the real world through virtual ones for those responsible for teaching and supporting instruction in foreign languages, the social sciences, and/or cultural studies. (Times EST)

Delivered online in our virtual auditorium

Program Description

Given an unlimited budget and unlimited time, the best way to help students gain an understanding global cultures in all their diversity, the manner in which they interact, and the complexity of international political, social, and economic relations might be to facilitate their direct and guided experience of the world through extensive travel, internships, and foreign study, but obviously this is not practical or even possible. Fortunately technology enables simulations, role play, and games that allow participants to work out the potential consequences of certain decisions taken in peace negotiations between warring parties, to walk along the streets of an ancient Roman city, or to model the results of emissions controls on climate change, to cite a few examples. In this session Chris Boyland, Director of the Language Learning Center and Giuliana Perco, Lecturer in Italian at Bryn Mawr College, will lead a discussion of the role of gaming in higher education, surveying some of the applications most likely to be useful. Participants will be invited to share their own experiences, with the goal of determining the best applications and practices.

This event is part of the series, “Special Topics: Teaching Tools for the Global Age,” a sequence of interactive discussions delivered online via MIV.