I guess there's been a bunch of stuff from this series of reading on gaming that I found interesting, and that I haven't really thought about before. Just like infusing my courses with new media what-not, I'm now kinda into the idea of using games, or at least persuasive games, in my comp course next semester. I think the tough issue that I keep butting up against is: what strategies will I be using to help students investigate games as a site of complex social and rhetorical issues?

I assume that i can adopt and adapt some of the strategies that I've developed in the past to work on popular culture/local culture/culture, and use some of the information that we've worked with so far in this course, but maybe that feels like an inadequate cop-out in some way. Part of my perspective on this issue also relates to what Mark and Chris have said about being skeptics in using video games to teach. How much time should I use to develop these games in class? How far should I push students to investigate these sites? Should I play it safe at first and use the "persuasive games" that help more direct educational and ideological goals?

Part of the reason I have so many questions relating to this issue is that I haven't worked with or taught with games yet, but the other issue I've found in most every reading (with the possible exception of Sam's and maybe a couple others) is that the pedagogical application comes across as an afterthought. Like some of the cognitive arguments about games and their benefits, I find that many of the readings we have investigated for class come up short when developing the more practical ends to these ideas. it's great to think about cognitive science, educational aspects, socialization, emotional intelligences, transferability, and sociology, but I guess there's still some work to be done before we have practical solutions for integrating games into the classroom--especially when we're integrating them into courses designed for general education.