Teaching History With Computer Simulations: The Oregon Trail and Beyond

Teaching History With Computer Simulations: The Oregon Trail and Beyond Dave Lester Center for History and New Media George Mason University

The Oregon Trail Computer Game
First developed in 70’s
Released in 1985
Designed for education
Computer simulation
Decision-based single
player game

Why The Oregon Trail
Most successful History education game, ever.
Large enthusiast community
5 th version of the game is still ranked second for ‘parent approved’ games among 13-17 year-olds

Teaching Objective
Designed to be used as a teaching tool for learning about Westward expansionism and the Oregon Trail, as well as exciting students about History

Critical Questions
What was the effectiveness of the game?
Students gaining knowledge in the game
How accurately does the game represent history?
Why do people love the Oregon Trail so much?

Simulations are Interactive Narratives
Ludology vs Narratology
My presentation’s critique takes a narrativist approach
Historical narrative in computer simulations can be problematic
Abstraction

Gender in The Oregon Trail
The strong white man conquering the American West
Visually and textually explicit
The narrative omits the contributions of women on the trail, and tells an idealized narrative of men

Gender Visualization
The male figure leads the wagon
Users only control wagon leader
Women only shown in this one scene -- virtually removed from the visual narrative

Textual Narrative
“ I hear terrible stories about wagon parties running out of food before Oregon - the whole party starving to death. We must check our supplies often; we might not get there as soon as we think. Always plan for the worst, I say.”
Women are consistently shown gossiping or worrying in the game - powerless to make the decisions of men

Oregon Trail Survey
Collect oral histories and learn what students remember about the game
Hoping to find out:
How was the game used?
How do former students remember gender and race represented in the game?
Reached online enthusiast groups with hundreds of responses

Two Survey Conclusions
The game was misused in the classroom – 85% students played solely the game without additional instruction
Users remember things happening in the game that didn’t actually happen – fill in the gaps with their own knowledge/stereotypes

Reflections on Educational Use
Failed to simply be used only as a tool
Teachers improperly used the game as a lesson in itself, lacking augmentative instruction to provide context
The narrative of the game itself was limited in its scope
Offering only a limited historical narrative to students learning about the Trail

More Information
Oregon Trail Survey
http://oregontrailsurvey.com
Dave Lester
http://davelester.org

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Teaching History With Computer Simulations: The Oregon Trail and Beyond

by davelester on Jul 24, 2008

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