We have been using games as teaching tools for many years, but I believe that we are just starting to realize the educational value of mainstream games such as Second Life. Montclair State University recently held their Learning 2.0 Conference and an interesting presentation that came out of the event was one titled ‘Second Life as a Pedagogical Tool’. Montclair State is New Jersey’s second largest university. If you are interested in learning more about Half Life and the teaching value it presents, the following slide show is something worth looking at:

written by Will Snizek \\ tags: Conference, event, half, Learning, life, mainstream, Montclair, New Jersey, Pedagogical, presentation, Second, State, teaching, Tool, university, value, Video Games

[Editor's Note: In the first part of our two part interview with Ragnhild Mogren, teacher at Stockholm University, we specifically discuss the Resident Evil 5 trailer, why historical baggage can never be divorced from certain imagery and ask what it means to live in the "global village".]

What do we see when we play videogames? What implications do games have on our society, and do games get a free pass because they’re “just games”?

Riding on the wave that is the Resident Evil 5 debacle about racism and culture understandings about mediums that we consume every day, we spoke to Ragnhild Mogren, teacher at the educational programme Multimedia Education - Technology at Stockholm university, about these issues to figure out why not just gamers, but our entire society, should care about what games are portraying and contributing to our culture.

What does a person with no understanding of the Resident Evil franchise, as a game series, think about this piece of film? When asked about what feelings and emotions that comes up just from the trailer alone, Mogren’s response is quite clear.

- If I should interpret this trailer from a hermeneutic perspective, that my previous understanding and knowledge plays a huge part in what I actually see here, then this piece of film is very racist.

Her arguments echo the words of N’Gai Croal and his MTV Multiplayer blog interview, that there are images in this trailer that are perfectly sound to be concerned about.

- This trailer says to me that the black people here are portrayed as Neanderthals, quite frankly. This white figure, on the other hand, is very good looking in terms of the norms and rules of what a good looking man is supposed to look like in our society, even if it’s completely unrealistic. The trailer shows political power in that it presents a sense of historical colonial suppression.

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written by Jesper Sellerberg \\ tags: Africa, Chris Redfield, Evil, fact, Features, game, Gender, Interview, part, person, perspective, Racism, Ragnhild Mogren, Resident, society, South Africa, Stockholm, teacher, Today, Trailer, university