| HD-50573-09 | Digital Humanities: Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants | Michigan State University | Red Land/Black Land: Teaching Ancient Egyptian History Through Game-Based Learning | 4/1/2009 - 3/31/2012 | $49,575.00 | Ethan | C. | Watrall | | | | Michigan State University | East Lansing | MI | 48824-3407 | USA | 2009 | Media Studies | Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants | Digital Humanities | 49575 | 0 | 49575 | 0 | The development of a modification of the game Civilization IV that would allow students to explore ancient Egypt.
This project will produce a robust Civilization IV mod (a modification to an existing game) allowing players to explore the society and history of Ancient Egypt. The project has three goals: 1) players will explore the process of social and historical change from the early Predynastic period to the end of the Third Intermediate Period (ca 4000 - 525 B.C.); 2)supplementary game content will help players explore the construction of historical knowledge-- how Egyptologists and archaeologists know what they do about ancient Egypt; 3) the mod will provide an accurate counterpoint to many mainstream commercial videogames that perpetuate pseudo-historical and pseudo-archaeological notions of ancient Egypt. This game-based learning approach will provide a far deeper, more experiential understanding of the subject than might be gained through more traditional means such as textbooks or lectures. |