Teaching Digital Literacy: Videogames in Education

In this four-week course, you’ll explore new ways to teach digital literacies with videogames, helping you to use videogames and game design as an educational tool.

Watch the introduction video here

Course curriculum

1. Disclaimer
2. Welcome to the course!
3. Let’s meet our lead educator
4. What is your videogame biography?
5. Emerging questions and debates about playing videogames in childhood
6. What is your videogame biography?
1. What kinds of play do children do in videogames?
2. Categorising different types of digital play
3. Playing in the pandemic
1. What is Minecraft?
2. The Minecraft Club; playing videogames at school
3. The Minecraft Club; playing videogames at school (part 2)
4. Exploring difficult issues in Minecraft
5. Minecraft: A Parent and Folklorist Perspective
6. Interpreting children's Minecraft play
1. An introduction to CRESST and their focus on conflict
2. Can playing videogames help develop problem solving?
3. Can children resolve conflict using videogames?
4. Videogames and friendships
5. Videogames and friendships
1. Claims and assumptions about videogames and childhood
2. End of week review
1. Welcome to Week 2
2. Character types
3. Digital media and identity
4. Designing avatars
5. Building characters and avatars for video
1. Videogames in fiction: Chris Edge on Escape Room
2. Videogames and fan fiction
3. What sort of videogame world would you build, and why? Part 1
4. What sort of videogame world would you build, and why? Part 2
1. Ludic and logic in videogames
2. Maps, quests and missions - narrative structure with Richard Boon and Storybox
1. An introduction to branching narratives
2. Case study: introducing Twine Part 1
3. Case study: introducing Twine Part 2
4. Exploring Worldbuilders
1. End of week summary
1. Introduction to the week; a focus on literacy and learning
2. What can videogames teach us about learning?
3. Introducing the National Videogame Museum
4. How videogames and other technologies are used by families to support language learning
1. Videogames in Museums and Galleries
2. An introduction to the 5 C's model for teaching digital literacies
3. Videogames, literacy and learning
4. Which aspect of digital literacy do you think is the most important?
5. How important is collaboration in videogame playing?
6. Videogames and collaboration
1. Developing games: a creative process
2. Do we need to teach children coding?
3. Young people and coding
4. What is computational thinking and how do we develop it?
5. Makerspaces: Making Videogames
6. Introducing Agent Asha: an interview with Sophie Deen
1. End of week summary
1. 4.1 Welcome to the week are videogames for everyone
2. The cultural legacy of videogames
3. Who works in the videogames industry?
4. Quiz results discussion
5. Working in the games industry: an interview with Jake Habgood
6. Working in the games industry: an interview with Jake Habgood (part 2)
7. Videogame design: a changing industry
8. What are your impressions of the games industry?
1. Videogames and representation
2. Videogames and representation
3. Case study: Traveling While Black
4. Access all areas? Video games for disabled children and young people
5. Representing Places in Videogames
6. Case study: Traveling While Black
1. What is the future of videogames?
2. Augmented realities and newly playful spaces: a case study of Pokemon Go
3. Connecting Animal Crossing and the metaverse
4. Introducing VR and Storyland
5. Entering Storyland: onboarding, immersion and embodiment in virtual reality games
1. End of course summary

About this course

75 lessons
3.5 hours of video content

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

Explore the role of videogames in childhood
Critique negative preconceptions about game playing
Create activities to support children's learning

Certification

You will receive a certificate of completion for Teaching Digital Literacy: Videogames in Education. You will receive 25 SACE points.

Pricing

This course is part of our CPTD Bundle.

Teaching Digital Literacy: Videogames in Education

In this four-week course, you’ll explore new ways to teach digital literacies with videogames, helping you to use videogames and game design as an educational tool.

Watch the introduction video here

Course curriculum

Videogames and Childhood: 1.1 Videogames Biographies

1.2. How do children play in videogames?

1.3 Introducing Minecraft

1.4 Videogames and conflict

1.5 Key Reflections

Videogames and Storytelling: 2.1 Avatars and Characters

2.2 Imaginary worlds

2.3 Plot and structure

2.4 Interactive storytelling

2.5 Key Reflections

3.1 Videogames as Literacy and Learning: What can videogames teach us about learning

3.2 Literacy in the digital age

3.3 Designing and creating videogames

3.4 Key Reflections

4.1 Videogames are for Everyone: Who gets to Make Videogames?

4.2 How do Videogames represent people?

4.3 The future of videogames

4.4 Key Reflections

About this course

Learning Objectives

Certification

Pricing