(In case there's anyone worried about this being an 'advertising' thread due to the video link, I've cleared it with Pov)

Some of you may know that I'm at uni training to be a High-School teacher. During my studies this semester, I wrote part of a paper on the use of video games in schools, and how schools ignore activities like blogging and gaming as 'distractions'. Basically, I looked at the literacy benefits of including video games within schools, including their role as potential texts for study in English (or whatever the literacy/literature equivalent subject is overseas). As I'm now on my break, I figured I'd make a video about this issue (to hold off boredom for a while), specifically looking at the Shivering Isles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLVhgaN4EXU&feature=plcp

Just so people know, this isn't intended to be an advertisemant for my glorious YouTube channel with its single video. Rather, lets discuss what we think about this. We all know video games have come a long way. We know games like our beloved Elder Scrolls feature incredibly deep worlds rivalling other fantasy novels. Yet, games are essentially ignored in schools except for a few exceptions.

The video highlights my own thoughts on this, but I'd like to know others' thoughts and opinions. Do you think video games have a place in schools? Do you think they can serve as texts for study? Or do you think video games have yet to achieve the required sophistication?

Depends on the level of education. In the senior years perhaps as pupils won't see it as a non-serious topic. I think they'd appreciate it more as it's something more interesting than your regular literature/media.
Blogging and things are good topics for schools to cover as they are quickly becoming a large part of society. Heck, school run blogs for pupils to maintain could be a great learning experience if executed well.

Those are my thoughts as someone currently in their senior years of secondary school.

I doubt many games would make good texts, but their could be other educational uses gained from them. I gained a lot of my knowledge in maths through RPGs.

It would be entirely dependent upon the game, how it is used in the curriculum of the course, is it the main focus or a supplement, etc... . If you were to make a class solely focused on a game to explore it and go deeper into the game I would say no. This puts games in a bad light, due to the fact there are many out there who think digital mediums, like blogs and games, are "corrupting" the basis of education, not my words of choice really.

However, if you were to teach a class that decided to do a small section on gaming as an evolved medium, I can see that as beneficial. Example of this would be a literature class that teaches story telling elements. You could go with three solidified archetypes of heroes, story telling in general, or evolved story telling (RPGs with general being FPS games). Could also see philosophical connotations for college level courses, dealing with potential "iconoclastic worship" in a religious sense. Mario and Sonic are practically household names, and I have no doubt that 85%, or more, of the US population knows who those two are if they saw a picture of them.

Interesting vid and idea. I imagine there would be a lot of resistance to the idea, but I thought your using the film anolysis criteria on Shivering Isles was smart. There is not a high percentage of games that would work for this kind of study, I think, but a decent list could be made. Would certainly spark interest for those students who do like to game.