Type of Presentation

Workshop (1 hour and 15 minutes)

Target Audience

Higher Education

Location

Room 1002

Abstract

In Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College (Harvard UP, 2014) Mark Carnes argues that curricula such as “Reacting to the Past” engages students in subversive play in order to succeed in instilling concepts that have proved difficult to teach by other methods: critical thinking, empathy, leadership, a realistic view of history, and ultimately a better understanding of themselves. Such experiences, we have found, also foster inquiry and strategic thinking, core concepts of ACRL’s framework for information literacy.

Participants will experience an abbreviated “game day” session from the Reacting to the Past curriculum, to illustrate how the role playing game can inspire student’s interest and creativity, especially as information users. Dr. Allison Belzer and experienced student players from her “Reacting” courses will lead the game play. Dr. Belzer will present her experience using the “Reacting” curriculum in her History courses, specifically how it impacts her students' information literacy skills. Caroline Hopkinson will share her experience creating LibGuides for the course and how “Reacting” contributes to students understanding of “Research as Inquiry” and “Searching as Strategic Exploration.” The workshop aims to provide a good introduction to the games and their usefulness for developing information literacy concepts in order to inspire teachers to adopt the curriculum and librarians to support the curriculum.

Tentative workshop agenda, using the game Rousseau, Burke and the Revolution in France, 1791.

  • 10 minutes - introduce Reacting concept & discuss different games
  • 40 minutes - distribute short roles to participants and divide group into 5 factions (Jacobins, Right, moderates, Crowd + indeterminates). Factions formulate strategies to win the game. Students assist, and factions each give a short speech (in character), then the group will vote on the issue at hand.
  • 10 minutes - big group discussion about game and information literacy, including LibGuide & student and faculty reflection on how playing the game develops information literacy concepts (articulating a question, answering it via sources and incorporating those sources into their own text/speech) students weigh in
  • 15 minutes Wrap up Including & Q & A

Learning outcomes

Participants will better understand how RTTP and other role playing games “hook” students by experiencing some game play.

Participants will learn how RTTP contributes to information literacy from several perspectives, and draw their own conclusions from the experience.

Presentation Description

Mark C. Carnes in Minds on Fire argues that Reacting to the Past role immersion games employ subversive play in order to create a transformative learning experience. Students are at the center of the action in these games and Carnes argues that the competitive play develops skills and concepts often considered difficult to teach: critical thinking, empathy, leadership. The presenters add information literacy to Carnes’ list. Play a mini version of the game Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791 with experienced students and instructors in order to explore this innovative, interdisciplinary curriculum and consider its uses for information literacy.

Publication Type and Release Option

Presentation (Open Access)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

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Sep 26th, 11:15 AM Sep 26th, 12:45 PM

Researching my role for myself: Reacting to the Past and information literacy

Room 1002

In Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College (Harvard UP, 2014) Mark Carnes argues that curricula such as “Reacting to the Past” engages students in subversive play in order to succeed in instilling concepts that have proved difficult to teach by other methods: critical thinking, empathy, leadership, a realistic view of history, and ultimately a better understanding of themselves. Such experiences, we have found, also foster inquiry and strategic thinking, core concepts of ACRL’s framework for information literacy.

Participants will experience an abbreviated “game day” session from the Reacting to the Past curriculum, to illustrate how the role playing game can inspire student’s interest and creativity, especially as information users. Dr. Allison Belzer and experienced student players from her “Reacting” courses will lead the game play. Dr. Belzer will present her experience using the “Reacting” curriculum in her History courses, specifically how it impacts her students' information literacy skills. Caroline Hopkinson will share her experience creating LibGuides for the course and how “Reacting” contributes to students understanding of “Research as Inquiry” and “Searching as Strategic Exploration.” The workshop aims to provide a good introduction to the games and their usefulness for developing information literacy concepts in order to inspire teachers to adopt the curriculum and librarians to support the curriculum.

Tentative workshop agenda, using the game Rousseau, Burke and the Revolution in France, 1791.

  • 10 minutes - introduce Reacting concept & discuss different games
  • 40 minutes - distribute short roles to participants and divide group into 5 factions (Jacobins, Right, moderates, Crowd + indeterminates). Factions formulate strategies to win the game. Students assist, and factions each give a short speech (in character), then the group will vote on the issue at hand.
  • 10 minutes - big group discussion about game and information literacy, including LibGuide & student and faculty reflection on how playing the game develops information literacy concepts (articulating a question, answering it via sources and incorporating those sources into their own text/speech) students weigh in
  • 15 minutes Wrap up Including & Q & A

Learning outcomes

Participants will better understand how RTTP and other role playing games “hook” students by experiencing some game play.

Participants will learn how RTTP contributes to information literacy from several perspectives, and draw their own conclusions from the experience.