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?

So out of curiosity I downloaded the online version of Magic The Gathering (If you are unfamiliar with the game or my history with it, see my post from last week: http://www.digitalparlor.org/sp08/blackmon1/node/161). At first I was sucked into the new environment because I could navigate to a game room where other players were waiting to start up a game. But, after playing a few really engaging games with the other online guests, and going undefeated with a few last minute come from behind victories, I became very aware of the solitude I was experiencing.

As I reflected on the readings from this week and the discussions we have been having in class about the role games can playing in learning, my mind immediately turned to Bill Hart-Davidson and Tim Peeples’ “Techniques, Technologies and the Deskilling of Rhetoric and Composition.” What came to mind was their comment that “[t]eachers pose challenging rhetorical problems to students to help them learn how to apply rhetorical strategies and techniques covered in class. And usually students are content to play along” (Hart-Davidson and Peeples 276).

Just a quick post on Thomas Derrick's article on the DOSequis game that he plays in class-- perhaps I'm just an idiot and am missing something here, but I don't see the overarching pedagogical point of the game that he devised. Am I remiss in thinking that when students switch monitor cables and then play what appears to be an elaborate game that exists somewhere between "20 Questions," "Telephone," and "Madlibs," they're not really doing very much work in the class?