ReMAP

Digital Games, Play and Creativity

Spring term, dates: TBC

Lead tutor: Diane Carr

Contributing tutor: Andrew Burn & Alison Gazzard

Students of this MA level course will learn to analyse computer and video games, research aspects of player culture, and explore current games and education debates. The module will also introduce approaches to game design in schools, linking the media arts to basic principles of programming. We will use the popular games-authoring software Mission Maker, and students will take away a free single-user licence.   The course will cover:

• Narrative and games
• Games, gender and cultural politics
• Play, player culture and online communities
• Learning in games, and within game communities
• The place of games and game design in schools
• Drama, Role-Play and Learning
• Game research methodologies

This course is aimed at anyone interested in studying games, play and education. The course combines distance learning with 2 days of face-to-face teaching. The course tutors, Diane Carr, Alison Gazzard and Andrew Burn, have researched, taught and published extensively on the topics of games, players and media education.

The video below shows the student group and tutors on this module in Second Life, in a seminar on the nature of learning in virtual worlds.