Using the Gaming Center to Promote Student Engagement
By Cynthia Rutz, Director, Faculty Development (CITAL)
On Monday, March 31, there was an Open House for faculty at the new Center for Games & Interactive Entertainment.
Martin Buinicki (English) introduced the features of the Center and spoke to faculty about how they could use the space with their students.
The Gaming Center contains computer and gaming consoles for single player and multiplayer games. But it is also filled with analog games, i.e. board games. Many of these were donated by gaming companies such as Goodman Games, which is also sponsoring a paid summer internship for one of our students. The Center also encourages students to be creative by stocking a collection of game parts–timers, dice, markers, etc.–that students can use to make their own original games.
Student aides are employed to oversee the space in the evenings when students can use it. But during the daytime, the Gaming Center is available for faculty to book a session or two with their students. The Center has five round tables with six chairs each, so that up to thirty students can work there at a time. Faculty who wish to reserve the Center for up to two weeks at a time, should email jonathan.kozak1@valpo.edu.
Martin believes that there is an excellent computer and/or analog game for almost every discipline. For example, former Valpo mathematics professor Mindy Calpadi has published on Teaching Mathematics Through Games. Martin mentioned Walden, a computer game that gives students an immersive experience with the Thoreau text, and also the board game Pendragon in which students play as members of King Arthur’s Court. For sociology, Martin showed us Coyote & Crow, a tabletop roleplaying game created by indigenous people, which imagines a world that has never been colonized.
Some Valpo faculty are already using games in their classes. Lucas Kelly’s history students use a game to take on different roles in the Constitutional Convention. This semester, mathematics professor Aysegul Yayimli is having her students design a computer game for which Joe Bognar’s students are providing original music.
Laura Krepp (Communication & Visual Arts) spoke to us about how she uses the Gaming Center with her graphic design and advanced design students. For example, for a unit on branding in her CVA 230 Graphic Design class, she showed us games that help her students practice drawing logos from memory (Telestrations) and learn about the importance of color theory and psychology (HUES and CUES) before they attempt to create their own brand and logo. Her CVA 3 Advanced Design students make their own original board game. They begin by developing a concept, then build a cardboard prototype that their fellow students playtest in the Gaming Center. After final modifications, students use the Sirko Makerspace to build their final game in a variety of materials that may include wood, acrylics, or plastic.
In the question and answer session, we talked about where Valpo could go from here in helping faculty use the Game Center for pedagogy. Ideas included a CITAL workshop on game pedagogy, creating a VUE unit in which students create games around the topic of leadership, or a faculty learning community on using games in the classroom. Martin mentioned that as part of his Baepler Professorship, he will be hosting the Wente Faculty Seminar on “The Pedagogy of Play: Games as a Resource and Subject of Study.”
Martin ended by mentioning that this summer the annual Gaming Convention (Gen Con) will be held in early August in Indianapolis. The day before, they always hold a day for educators so teachers can preview games that might work for their classes. He hopes that Valpo could find a way to fund travel for 4-5 faculty to attend and bring back ideas to other faculty.
Martin is also happy to talk to any faculty who have a question such as: “Is there a game that will help my students learn ….?”