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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 1h

Hey I'd like to see that too,Thomas!

Reposted by Jeremiah McCall (he/him)

Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 1d

Started Researched Choice-Based History project with my ninth-grade Ancient World students, now in its 8th year (10th grade Honors Modern World started in Sept). Updating the rubrics as usual & writing out my whole method in 3 chapters of next year's Designing Historical Games for Classrooms book.

Student-Designed Histories

CCDS History Students Interactive Histories For the years up to 2023 these interactive histories were mostly (except for the 2019 entry) designed by my ninth-graders in Ancient World History at Cin…

gamingthepast.net

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 1d

Fascinating! What do you think about Short, who as edited and quoted in the article seems to suggest, drawing from others, that novels were a bad idea historically and, I'm inferring, the crafted goal oriented player agent is going to be / should be phased out by the procgen sim? Just curious.

Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 1d

Started Researched Choice-Based History project with my ninth-grade Ancient World students, now in its 8th year (10th grade Honors Modern World started in Sept). Updating the rubrics as usual & writing out my whole method in 3 chapters of next year's Designing Historical Games for Classrooms book.

Student-Designed Histories

CCDS History Students Interactive Histories For the years up to 2023 these interactive histories were mostly (except for the 2019 entry) designed by my ninth-graders in Ancient World History at Cin…

gamingthepast.net

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 1d

Any thoughts on this, friends?

Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 3d

Hi historical game interested folks!
Saw abstract for research article -- it suggested affective engagement w/ historical content increased using particular games vs a text but knowledge test scores better w/ text.
Okay let's shift from article i've-not-read to that principle 1/ 🧵
🗃 #AncientBluesky

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 1d

www.cnn.com/world/africa...

Video game lets you return African artifacts from Western museums | CNN

In “Relooted,” players plan a heist to reclaim real-life African artifacts held in Western institutions.

www.cnn.com

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 2d

PS If you've never heard of GTP (or thought it too expensive -- I sympathize) it's on sale on Amazon right now

www.amazon.com/Gaming-Past-... /9

Gaming the Past

Gaming the Past [McCall, Jeremiah] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Gaming the Past

www.amazon.com

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 2d

Still on sale!

Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 10d

Hey Gaming the Past Second Edition is on a pretty good sale on Amazon. 35ish instead of 51ish

Gaming the Past

Gaming the Past [McCall, Jeremiah] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Gaming the Past

www.amazon.com

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 2d

Okay I completed this thread from yesterday for interested folk

Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 3d

Hi historical game interested folks!
Saw abstract for research article -- it suggested affective engagement w/ historical content increased using particular games vs a text but knowledge test scores better w/ text.
Okay let's shift from article i've-not-read to that principle 1/ 🧵
🗃 #AncientBluesky

2

Reposted by Jeremiah McCall (he/him)

Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 3d

Hi historical game interested folks!
Saw abstract for research article -- it suggested affective engagement w/ historical content increased using particular games vs a text but knowledge test scores better w/ text.
Okay let's shift from article i've-not-read to that principle 1/ 🧵
🗃 #AncientBluesky

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 2d

And then, a far better learning goal (in addition to the really useful but often fickle affective engagement) is to
- Analyze agency in systems
- Analyze systemic models (i.e. games) of the past
- Critique modern media and how media shape messages

But more importantly, what do YOU think?
8/

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 2d

I don't want my students to simply receive information uncritically from ANY source. So this goes back to my long term Gaming the Past point. Gameplay should be accompanied by teacher guidance both in purposeful play & meaningful analysis and critique. Teachers should mediate in a history class. 7/

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 2d

So not only do we KNOW video games aren't great for fact acquisition & retention, we KNOW that is not a particularly worthwhile goal for history teachers. Addition: idea that game should "teach" facts uncritically is part of same error: the idea that worthy education is abt pouring information in 6/

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 2d

(Continued 🧵) Sam Wineburg demonstrated APUSH kids often did better on factual tests than PhDs (not in US history) and STILL did not have basic historical skills of the PhDs. Factual retention & reproduction of facts as "knowledge" is NOT historical thinking. 5/
🗃️ #AncientBluesky

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 3d

1st being a historian and teaching historical thinking is not about fact-knowledge transfer. Go back to Sam Wineburgs early 1990s articles
(Whoops have to go grocery shopping, will work on this later) 4/

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 3d

This has been an objection to gameplay and analysis in history classes for decades (way back it was just critiquing social studies simulations but same critique). But there are SO MANY problems w/ focusing at all on "knowledge acquisition" if that means anything like "fact recall" on a test 3/

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 3d

IMHO checking in pedagogical gameplay and debrief in history for affective engagement vs knowledge test scores (depending on what counts as knowledge) misses a 🔑 point. We know, we really know, deep systems play & countefactuals & debrief do not improve "knowledge" recall on tests. WE KNOW THIS 2/ 🧵

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 3d

Hi historical game interested folks!
Saw abstract for research article -- it suggested affective engagement w/ historical content increased using particular games vs a text but knowledge test scores better w/ text.
Okay let's shift from article i've-not-read to that principle 1/ 🧵
🗃 #AncientBluesky

1 5 7

Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 5d

Delighted one of last year's Honors 10s, now an 11th grader, felt safe and bold and witty enough to write this on my board while I started a round of RTTA: Bronze Age with this years 10s

(note: I'm DMac, and I clearly taught her my vision of what history is quite well! I'm proud!)

Don't fall for the board game propaganda
dmac is lying to you
His interpretations of board games being successful educational resources in past years are purely selective and should be scrutinized. Be metacognitive. Be great.
-- Whistleblower duckling

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 6d

Have you ever thought, really thought, abt games abt history, wondered how you'd define that, how they present the past, how you might understand them more deeply?
Well my friends, you're in luck! Check out the entry "History Games" in Encyclopedia of Ludic Terminology
(shameless self promotion)

eolt.org

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Reposted by Jeremiah McCall (he/him)

Atomic Cortex Studios @astrodogwalker.bsky.social · 8d

Some tidbits about the new game. (NOTE: prototype art and not final!)

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 9d

So a student can design a game with an unappealing choice of mechanics and still do very well on the assignment, by design.

Of course all those comments are for boardgames. Twine choice-based histories don't suffer the limitations of gameplaying experience 3/

Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 9d

But there is no question that you are right. The more games they have played, the easier it probably is for them to design. But again I'm assessing not only on the effectiveness of the game models but students' own critical sense of where their game is and is not historically defensible. 2/

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 9d

Fantastic question! So I try to schedule student project so that they've played some board games first. Then I provide some quick examples of game mechanics implementations of history (using HPS). Finally, I'm increasingly trying to help them brainstorm bc innovation is not what I am after 1/

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Jeremiah McCall (he/him) @gamingthepast.bsky.social · 9d

and
2) 2) Depends on whether the groups make for better observation and note taking and learning the game. That depends on students in question