Literacy Now – Mastering videogames in the classroom

There can be little doubt that videogames are engaging technologies that young people embrace when brought into school classrooms. The aim of this workshop is to better equip teachers to confidently and effectively use videogames in classrooms for a range of academic purposes.

This live and onsite workshop begins by exploring how teachers can bridge the gap between the demands of the curriculum and the knowledge and literacies that accompany popular games, with a specific emphasis on planning for subject-specific learning with and through videogames. 

Dr Bacalja will then look at the strategies for ‘reading’ videogames in the classroom, drawing on three approaches to meaning-making (close reading, intertextuality, and visual analysis) to understand multiple ways of supporting students to make sense of gameplay. 

Finally, Dr Bacalja engages with critical literacy to design activities which challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about the ways popular videogames (re)present the world and the game cultures that often accompany play. 

Through a combined focus on subject-specific learning, multiple ways of reading games in the classroom, and fostering critical literacy, participants will leave with a clear sense of best practice for using videogames in the classroom.

This program is for teachers, pre-service teachers, and anyone who is interested in how videogames can support student learning.

Dr Alex Bacalja

Alex Bacalja is a Lecturer in language and literacy and coordinates the English Method and Literacy subjects within the Master of Teaching at Melbourne University Graduate School of Education. His areas of focus include: the impact of digital technologies, especially digital games, on the literacy practices of young people, critical digital literacy education, and English teaching, curriculum and policy