Designing video games for history classrooms

Hiriart, JFV

Abstract

History is very much present in children's lives through a myriad of cultural products varying from TV shows, historical fiction books, films and video games. The latter undoubtedly has become one of the most popular engagements with the past for new generations of digital natives. Through the agency of the mouse and keyboard or a gamepad controller, school children can embody the identity of historical figures, walk through detailed reconstructions of ancient cities, control entire civilisations or play a decisive role in historical battles. All these engagements, as several scholars have noted, extend beyond pure entertainment; the cognitive and affective processes triggered by video games can be productively used in history classrooms.
In this chapter, we will start by reviewing examples of digital games designed specifically for history classrooms, followed by the presentation of the novel experience of designing an experimental game to teach primary school children about the Anglo-Saxon age. This game was created in iterative cycles of design, development and testing with the participation of historians, archaeologists and history educators. We will give an overview of its design process focusing on the conceptual ideas and frameworks that guided its design.

Citation

Hiriart, J. (2022). Designing video games for history classrooms. In S. Bertoldi, & A. Mariotti (Eds.), The Past as a Digital Playground: Archaeology, Virtual Reality and Video Games (56-65). Oxford: Archaeopress

• Start Date: Apr 19, 2021
• End Date: Apr 20, 2021
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Aug 22, 2022
• Pages: 56-65
• Book Title: The Past as a Digital Playground: Archaeology, Virtual Reality and Video Games
• ISBN: 9781803272665
• Publisher URL: https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781803272665
• Related Public URLs: https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781803272665
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference