Hello: Canada’s National Film Board (NFB) and several other Canadian and international media organizations created and launched an interactive documentary/video game late last year called: Fort McMoney (http://fortmcmoney.com), which provides an opportunity to interact with real characters associated with or living in Fort McMurray and working in the oil sands industry. I am writing to ask if anyone used the video game/documentary as a learning tool and/or assignment in their teaching. If yes, could you briefly share your impressions of it with me off-list?
The documentary/game is organized to last four weeks, with new questions posed to participants at the end of each week. The results of the questions are tallied and used to inform discussion and debate and the future of development or lack of development in the game. I am teaching an introductory course titled ‘politics of the environment’ to an interdisciplinary group of mostly first and second year undergraduate students this semester, and I am thinking of ‘assigning’ the game to the students, and then having them write a critical reflection on how the engagement with the game/documentary informed their understanding of the oil sands and the social, economic, ecological and political effects of the oil sands. I’m also thinking about doing a pre and post-survey of the students to see if and/or how participation in the game alters their understanding of the oil sands. The next round of the game begins January 19th, 2014. Please let me know if you have any experience using the game in a teaching environment and your impression of its strengths and weaknesses, or any other comments. I will be happy to share observations with the list. Thanks, Chris Christopher Gore, Ph.D. Associate Professor Undergraduate Program Director Politics and Public Administration Ryerson University email: [email protected] email: [email protected] Twitter: @cgore13 350 Victoria St. Toronto, ON, M5B2K3 tel: 416-979-5000 x2703 Editor, Review of Policy Research: The Politics and Policy of Science and Technology http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1541-1338 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gep-ed" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
