Spring 2005

Featured Educator - Rex A. Martin

Our second featured educator is Dr. Rex A. Martin from Bowie State University.

Biography
Rex A. Martin, before and while acquiring his Ph.D. in Mass Communications from Penn State University, spent nearly 25 years in the game industry. Following several years as a free-lance designer and writer, in 1981 he took on the position of Managing Editor for the Avalon Hill Game Company, the oldest and largest of the game manufacturers that published "historical simulations" (better known as "wargames") for the commercial market. Upon commencing his doctoral studies, he was offered an ad hoc position at MicroProse in Hunt Valley (Maryland), working during holiday and summer periods. While completing his dissertation (Cardboard Warriors: A Cultural History of American Wargaming 1958-1998), he worked at a variety of computer game companies, including MicroProse , Firaxis, and BreakAway Games.

Currently he is a member of the faculty of the Department of Communications at Bowie State University.

A Civilized Classroom Recently there has been growing academic and pedogical interest in electronic games as interactive, immersive educational tools. But again, as too often in the entertainment industry, this seems to be another case of "re-inventing the wheel." For, simply put, games - especially "serious simulations" - have been used for non-traditional learning for many years. A case in point... In 1992, I was invited to visit the Cambridge-South Dorchester High School in Cambridge, Maryland. The purpose of my visit was to observe a session of a unique experiment in using strategy games to promote learning among underprivileged and minority students. The public education system of Maryland, like many at the time, offered two tracks to students: the "technical track," geared towards a career in the trades, and a "college track," which groomed select students for college studies. In Cambridge, a decidedly blue-collar town on Maryland's Eastern Shore, the vast majority of high school students were shunted into the tech track. But, testing showed that a number of students with marginal grades and/or poor study habits were perfectly capable of college-track studies. For a variety of socio-cultural and economic reasons, however, these students tended to fall through the proverbial cracks in the state's educational system. Enter two high school teachers, who happened to be wargaming enthusiasts: Bill Busick and John Wood. They conceived of a new approach to motivating these students, fought the usual battles to have it added to the school's curriculum, and devised the course content - centered around the popular Avalon Hill boardgame Civilization. Their "World Perspectives" was a two-period, two-credit, two-teacher course designed to develop the reading, writing, speaking and analytic skills "necessary to be successful in college." Students who attained an "A" or "B" grade in the year-long class were recommended for advanced classes in history and English college-track courses for their following junior and senior years. "World Perspectives," using Civilization, was devised as a chance for "marginal" students to prove themselves. Simply put, the teachers interwove readings, lectures and assignments with playings of Civilization. Readings ranged from scholarly texts to excerpts of works by authors of the ancient civilizations depicted in the game. Lectures and films added more background. In short order, as John Wood explained it to me, they then spent a short session explaining the rules to the class ... and then "turned them loose." During class through the course of the academic year, the students would each play in as many as four or five games, sometimes as individuals and other times as team members. After each playing, they were tasked with composition assignments, on questions such as: What calamities or conflicts has your civilization faced; how have these affected it? Is war necessary for civilization; if so, why and when? How was your civilization affected by each of the following: starting position; war; trade; alliances with others; catastrophes? What are several factors that you believe important for civilizations to prosper? Nor did the teachers let them simply sit back and play. Every gaming session was highlighted by class-wide discussions about the events of their several games, comparisons between the games, with theories and observations voiced and hotly debated. All of this, centered on the play of the game, was blended in such a manner as to bring these "marginal" students to enjoy learning, "in spite of themselves" in the words of Mr. Busick. So, the concept of using games to reach, motivate and teach students is nothing new. The interactive nature of games - especially a game as multi-faceted as Civilization - is perhaps the best way to accomplish the first two. And the skill of the design team brings about the latter.

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