Japan in Eugene (Part 1: Gaming in College) | The Modern ...

This is the start of a small series of posts where I document the influence of Japanese culture in my local area (the small towns of Eugene and Springfield).?When you look around for small businesses that interest you, you may be surprised at what you find. Whether you realize it or not, there are business/corporate factors that come into play that influence what we think about our culture.

I start my tour on the campus of the University of Oregon where I study. Colleges are not (and should not be) businesses by any means, but both colleges and businesses?fall under the broad range of?institutions that provide resources to citizens. One reason that colleges are becoming great resources for learning about Japanese culture because they are quickly adapting video games as a means for instruction, not to mention all the articles about video games one can find in college library databases already (Dickey).

My university is also kind enough to provide a limited selection of games to check out. The video shows a small cart that houses every single game available, but behind the checkout desk lies game consoles, DDR dance pads, Rock Band instruments, and other accessories available to check out as well. While some?students may use the games for entertainment and social events, they can potentially learn a lot from certain games. History through Assassin?s Creed. Problem solving in the Portal?games. Caltech even offers DDR?to satisfy a?PE elective credit. There is a certain value to every click on every button of the controller. When used properly, I can foresee more video game classes coming in the future.

Though as evident by the relatively small catalogue of games, getting the funding to support video games is not easy. With the looming social stigma on video games and the recent recession, among other reasons, it is still hard to apply video games to interdisciplinary studies and directly learn from them in the classroom [although I did have one philosophy lecture on gender identity in gaming and Internet culture, but applications like these are still rare]. Even the DDR class in Caltech was cancelled for this academic year (not sure why). Nevertheless, the?fact that?US schools are offering such resources?is evidence of the merging of pop culture and academics in new ways, allowing students to engage in learning like never before.

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Works Cited:

Dickey, Michele D. ?Engaging by Design: How Engagement Strategies in Popular Computer and Video Games Can Inform Instructional Design.? Educational Technology Research and Development 53.2 (2005): 67-83. Web. 29 May 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/30220429>.

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Comment Question: Does your college/university offer something similar? Does your college look at games from an academic viewpoint?

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