One of my favorite classes to teach is the gaming/fan site workshop for my freshmen and sophomores. The geeks and gamers are each tasked with teaching one to two curious classmates how to game or how to use a fan site. Then as a team they analyze the language and skills required of the game or site to brainstorm a teaching activity with it. Yesterday’s classes explored Portal, Diablo 2, World of Warcraft, Viki.com, Archive of Our Own, Civilization, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Deviantart. It’s kind of cool to see what each team comes up with and it’s especially fun to see my students so passionate about teaching each other about a thing they love.
Materials
Readings and Podcast
Sauro, S. (Producer). (2010, March 22). The CALLspot episode 4: Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) & language learning [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://callspot.libsyn.com/webpage/episode-4-massively-multiplayer-online-games-mmo-gs-language-learning
Sundqvist, P., & Sylvén, L.K., (2014). Language-related computer use: Focus on young L2 English learners in Sweden. ReCALL, 26(1), 3-20.