Greetings, fellow Canvas Designers!
I have been a lurker here for quite a few years, but am trying to participate more in the community. I am wondering if anyone else is using commercial video games (Fallout, Mass Effects, GTA, etc.) to teach, and, if so, are you able to do it within Canvas?
I use video games to teach literature, as I truly believe that video games are a form of literature (and as equally valid as poetry, drama, short stories, essays, et al). Research indicates that young men do not read, but clearly they didn't include video game manuals in that study! I have found that pairing commercial games with canonical content provides substantial scaffolding for students with low reading interest.
For example...
When I taught FT (before my new life as an admin), I taught mostly classical literature and technical writing. Dante's Inferno was one of the texts covered, and students would become experts on a level in the poem and then would play that "similar" level in the XBox game (or play with a student worker if not a gamer). The students would compare and contrast the game and write an essay discussing their findings. The essay was what was graded - not the game play.
I am interested in collaborating with others interested in using this approach and then figuring out a way to leverage Canvas to deliver the content to students and to the OER community.
