The summer of 2011 offers moviegoers several productions based on superheroes and comic books. Thor. X-Men: First Class. Green Lantern. Captain America: The First Avenger. Cowboys & Aliens. Hollywood has discovered that comic book movies are more than a passing fad, resonating with audiences who connect with the humanity behind the costumes. As a result, comic book-based films have grown over the last decade—both in production and ticket sales— with many more movies to be released over the next few years (The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-man, Iron Man 3, and The Avengers to name a few.)

Teachers can use the popularity of superhero films to expand students' understanding of American culture. University of Idaho professor of history Katherine Aiken explored the use of comic books to teach U.S. history in a recent essay published by the Organization of American Historians' Magazine of History (Vol.24, no.2-April 2010). Aiken concluded that because comic books reflect larger social issues in U.S. society, they can help students examine how U.S. artists addressed issues of race, gender, nationalism, and conflict in popular publications.

Some educational publishers, for their part, have produced illustrated history stories and graphic novels to capture younger readers' attention, such as tales from the Revolutionary War. While history-based graphic novels are a useful supplement to course materials, studying comic books provides a different focus in the classroom. Analyzing U.S. popular culture can help teachers and students contextualize the origins of comic books, explore how events in history shaped the evolution of this medium, and assess the ability of comics to address larger social concerns.

A few approaches for connecting comic books to U.S. history include:

1. Chronological comparative study
   Students can create timelines, decade-level synopses, or graphic organizers that align U.S. historical events with the dates of creation of specific comic books, and show how these titles reflected social concerns. (For a nice overview on the history of comic books, Michigan State University's Ethan Wattrell's course website contains lecture slides and podcasts that can help orient educators.)
   
   For example:
   • 1920–30s: Comic books developed as a form of fantasy and escapism during the 1920s and the Great Depression.
   • 1940s: Superheroes went to war. Did comic books become tools for wartime propaganda, or did they simply reflect a period of national pride?
   • 1950s: Fantasy, horror, Westerns, and other genres overshadowed superhero stories. Is this a case of "hero" fatigue or socio-political concerns?
   • 1960s: The Marvel and Silver Ages: The Cold War, space race, and civil rights shaped a new era of heroes. The space race, for example, influenced the creation of the Fantastic Four and other interstellar heroes. The nuclear arms race, in turn, influenced the creation of Iron Man and the Hulk. Civil rights also played a significant role in the development of characters with social struggles, from the mutant X-Men to the blind superhero known as Daredevil and the increasing number of female heroines beyond Wonder Woman.

   

   • 1970s–1980s: Comic books became more mature. Serious issues such as drug abuse and apartheid influenced storylines in teen-centered titles such as the Teen Titans and X-Men/New Mutants. Specific stories, such as The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, tapped into the economic and political anxieties during the Reagan era. Titles such as Sandman also introduced comic books to a new generation of female readers during the late 1980s. All three titles appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list.
2. Addressing social issues
   Popular culture has often been able to deal with serious issues in an accessible manner. The story of Genosha in the pages of the X-Men extended the theme of genetic discrimination against mutants to issues of slavery and oppression—much like apartheid in South Africa. In this vein, comic books are an accessible way to address other social issues.
   
   For example:
   • Gender studies: How did the feminist movements of the 1970s affect characters like Wonder Woman and the Invisible Girl/Woman? What changes are visible in the depiction of female superheroes? How has the growing visibility of female artists, such as Louise Simonson, Lynn Varley, and Gail Simone, changed a male-dominated industry?
   • Activism: Students can study the effects of larger events such as the Vietnam War, September 11th, and the passage of the Patriot Act on comic book storylines. Recent stories such as Marvel's Civil War and World War II-era comics are useful starting points to examine individual rights and nationalism respectively.
   • Intellectual Property: Why was DC Comics unable to use the names "Superboy" and "Captain Marvel?" How did the founding of Image Comics become a significant development for independent comic books and the idea of creator rights? How do copyright and fair use laws affect the use of comic book characters in education?
3. "Golden Age," "Silver Age," and "Modern Age" of comic books
   What characterized each of these eras? Using long-running characters like Batman and the Joker, students can assess changing social norms, expectations, and trends in the 20th-century U.S. through the evolution of specific characters.



4. Government regulations and political concerns
   McCarthyism and moral issues threatened the comic book industry during the 1950s. Why? One fascinating story involves Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent, a bestselling book that eventually led to the policing and regulation of comic books and the creation of the Comic Code Authority. This is a good period to discuss government regulations, free speech, and what made comic books a "danger" to children in the 1950s. Another topic, dealing with moral issues, is human experimentation. In this video by Emory Bioethics professor Paul Root Wolpe, he uses the genetics in the X-Men comic books to talk about Nazi experimentation on humans, the Nuremberg trials, as well as U.S. testing on human subjects.
5. The evolution of major characters
   While Batman is one of the easiest character to compare his own evolution to changes in American society, he is not the only one that shows the influence of time and place. Tony Stark (Iron Man) famously struggled with alcoholism in the 1980s. Captain America went from World War II hero to a man out of time after decades of frozen animation. Peter Parker's (Spider-man) journey from awkward teenager to a married professional may be an easy-to-relate-to story for students. Likewise, Superman's recent decision to forgo his American identity, in order to embrace a more "global" role, created renewed interest (and a bit of controversy) in the media.
6. Comic book creators
   How did the personal lives of writers and illustrators like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Jerry Siegel, and Joe Schuster, among others, affect the tales they created? Many of these artists came from ethnic and working-class communities that shaped the setting and topics of their stories.

Comic books, therefore, can help diversify the teaching of American history and allows teachers to address important issues in a novel yet useful way. However, educators should take caution. Over the last few decades, comic books have shifted to a more mature audience and as a result the depiction of violence has become more graphic. Similarly, educators should be mindful of issues or artists that oversexualize characters.

As is the case with any material to be used in the U.S. history classroom, comic books should be previewed beforehand. Educators, however, can find plenty of "classroom-friendly" comics online or at a local comic book store. For example, the Pulitzer Prize-winning comic, Maus, commonly found at most school libraries, is a different take on Nazism and the Holocaust. Comic book companies have also increased their number of "kid-friendly" titles, easily found at bookstores like Barnes & Nobles and department stores such as Target. Finally, the first Saturday in May is "Free Comic Book Day" each year—a good chance to explore several titles at a local comic book store.

A final note:
Interdisciplinary approaches to using comic books in the classroom are also helpful for the history teacher. Art educators often argue that reading and making comics encourages students to become more skilled at critically examining texts—full of complex concepts and human relations. Students and teachers can use comics to bridge the gap between personal experiences and history, examine the connection between comics and social groups (such as the "art world" and ethnic groups,) and to deconstruct the medium in order to gain a better sense of what issues affected society. The marriage of visuals and text also helps reach reluctant readers and bring the classroom teacher closer to youth culture. Similarly, language arts specialists find that engagement enhances reading fluency— even in the elementary years. Low-level readers, in various studies, demonstrate greater engagement with visual texts like comic books.

History teachers can benefit from collaborative uses of comic books across disciplines. Either by working with a language arts or art teacher, or adapting diverse approaches to visual literacy in the history classroom, the use of comic books is helpful for working with others. Students will also find similar collaborative benefits in outside research and work. Whether they develop digital timelines using tools like Dipity or generate a Google Map to assess the geographic connections of comic book characters to U.S. history, digital tools are ideal for collaborations inside and outside the classroom. (Note: The Dipity and Google Map links show examples of how to use American comic books to teach U.S. History.)

(Note: This blog entry is the first part of a six-part series. Read more on using games in the classroom in parts two, three, four, five, and six.)

Using simulation games effectively in the classroom poses challenges. The power of such games to offer compelling and unique learning opportunities is very real, however, and well worth the effort. I invite readers to use the guidelines in this series to harness the power of simulation games. I encourage teachers to engage in their own play, experimenting with simulations thoughtfully, taking calculated risks in the classroom, wading into the chaos, and guiding students towards a more meaningful and relevant study of the past.

Before jumping into the thick of it, let’s deal with two preliminary points: what is a simulation game, and what are the strengths of simulation games for history education? A simulation game is a game—computer game for the purposes of this series—that dynamically represents one or more real-world processes or systems in the past. This is a broad definition that essentially includes most—but not all—history-themed games, games that place the player in historical roles, ranging from traders and subsistence farmers, to rulers and generals.

Historical simulation games have the power to immerse students in a world of conflicting goals and choices where they have the power to make decisions and experience (virtually) the consequences of those decisions. When playing a simulation, as opposed to reading a text, listening to a lecture, engaging in a discussion, or watching a film, the learner can, ideally, confront firsthand the constraints human actors in the past faced. They can learn about the scarcity of resources, importance of systems, ties of relationships, and a host of other things. Simulations can encourage learners to consider the historical and physical contexts people in the past faced and, best of all, to view the past as a the result of myriad human choices that were not preordained in any sense.

In addition, simulation games are interpretations of the past that facilitate student questioning and criticism. Players naturally have questions and criticisms about gameplay—even history-themed gameplay. When these are fostered by the teacher and classroom environment, powerful historical inquiries can result. Simulation games can be very effective tools, therefore, for teaching the fundamentals of analyzing and critiquing historical interpretations.

So much for the preliminaries. The first step in actually designing a lesson or unit around a historical simulation game is to select an appropriate game. It helps when doing so to understand at least in brief the computer hardware and software required to run these games.

There are two main types of simulation games. The first are browser-based. These games reside on the Internet. They are almost all programmed using Adobe Flash and can be played on any Web browser that uses the Flash plugin. In practice every computer of the past decade, PC or Mac, with high-speed Internet access can play these games. Android devices that have Flash enabled and a sufficiently large screen can also play these games. IPads—lacking the functionality to play interactive Flash content—cannot. Browser-based games are free, tend to be relatively simple to play, and tend to focus on contemporary issues. Since they are often playable in 20 minutes to one hour, they are excellent choices for those new to simulation game lessons and those interested in shorter game-based lessons.

The second category of games are desktop games. These are installed on computers, mainly PCs, though some can run on Macs, particularly those with Intel CPUs. They tend to be commercial, though there are free-to-play exceptions. They tend to be designed primarily for entertainment purposes, though some are intended to make social and political statements. These games are usually more sophisticated than their browser-based counterparts. They cover a range of historical periods largely untouched by the browser games; by the same token they tend not to deal with contemporary events.

Knowing the hardware basics is all very good, but where can one find appropriate games for classroom use? One can find all sorts of options with a bit of time and a search engine, but here are a few suggestions for starting points.

• Gaming the Past has a comprehensive index, listing most of the viable simulation games available as of this year. The Gaming the Past website lists a portion of those games and is updated several times a year. In my opinion, these are the best places to go for desktop online simulation games (full disclosure: I wrote the book and designed the website).
• Games for Change maintains the most comprehensive lists of games, mostly browser based, designed to tackle serious contemporary issues. The site links directly to the browser-based games to allow easy play.
• Playing History is a comprehensive listing of online history games, many of which are simulation games. Care is needed to separate more from less useful games.
• Special mention should be made of the BBC’s Interactive History page. It contains a number of simple but effective simulations from various parts of British history and more general European history.

One can also hunt through video game review websites looking for reviews of historical games. PC Gamer, both the website and the magazine, is my favorite of these resources when it comes to browsing for appropriate desktop games with historical themes.

In the next installment, I’ll look at what makes a simulation game effective for classroom use.

(Note: This blog entry is the second part of a six-part series. Read more on using games in the classroom in parts one, three, four, five, and six.)

The first part in this series considered resources for finding simulation games. Once a potentially suitable sim has been found, however, it still needs to be tested and evaluated for classroom use. In other words, the teacher needs to play-test it. While teachers do not have to be experts in playing games they assign in class, they must be familiar with how those games play and how they represent reality. With this in mind, this segment addresses the most important considerations when evaluating a game for classroom use.

There are educationally useful computer games that are not simulation games because the games do not to any significant degree represent real-world systems and situations. In general such games tend to focus on teaching factual content. Simulation games, however, offer models of real-world systems, relationships, and scenarios. Their ability to immerse players in dynamic interpretations of the past is their primary strength. Therefore, the most critical question for a teacher evaluating a simulation is: How reasonably does the game simulate the aspects of the real world that will be studied?

Tip One: Do Accuracies Outweigh Inaccuracies?
This is not an all-or-nothing proposition for any simulation. There is no such thing as a completely accurate interpretation of the world, regardless of whether that interpretation is encapsulated in a simulation or some other form of media.

The real issue for a teacher is whether the core gameplay defensibly models the real world in ways that address the curricular goals of the class. Mission US: For Crown or Colony, for example, could be cited for any number of inaccuracies, particularly issues of oversimplification. The views presented by the characters are not particularly sophisticated; the player tends to encounter exceptional figures rather than average ones (Phillis Wheatley, for example); in these ways the game could be said to mislead.

Ultimately, though, the core gameplay suggests that there were conflicting opinions on British policies in colonial Boston that could be grouped into broad categories and that tensions developed over how to deal with these policies. This core of the game is defensible; it is a point of view that can be supported with weighty evidence. By this standard, For Crown or Colony is a valid classroom simulation game. Equally as important is that even the flaws themselves in a game’s interpretation serve a useful purpose, providing valuable opportunities for students to engage in criticism. Ideally, historical criticism involves both supporting the reasonable elements of an interpretation and challenging the unreasonable. In practice it is very hard to get students to challenge the interpretations of texts and teachers. It is far less intimidating for students, however, to challenge the flaws in a game.

Even with this criterion a teacher has considerable leeway when determining if a game’s version of the past is reasonable enough. Each teacher will ultimately have to decide whether the combination of accuracies and inaccuracies in a game is appropriate for their class. Still, a helpful general guideline when evaluating a simulation is to consider the worst-case scenario: if the student played the game uncritically and came away accepting its main historical points, would those be reasonable? If so, then the game is a contender for classroom use and lessons can be planned to refine students’ views of the game. If not, it may be better to find a different game.

Tip Two: Can Students Easily Grasp Major Concepts?
For example, if someone played Sid Meier’s Railroads uncritically, they might walk away with the sense that the 19th-century development of the railroad was driven by powerful companies competing with one another to connect various resources and markets by rails in order to maximize profits. Flaws aside, that’s a reasonable impression. A real-time strategy game like Age of Empires, on the other hand, suggests that all civilizations are engaged in a mad dash to exhaust the world of resources and crush their enemies with overwhelming numbers and technology. On a dark day some may suspect this to be the case, but it is a very problematic generalization and thus, Age of Empires is a more problematic game to use for a history class.

This general guideline is not meant to suggest, however, that students should ever be left in a position to receive the messages of a game uncritically. Accordingly, even when a game’s interpretation of the past passes a teacher’s standards of “reasonable enough,” it is important to be aware—and as part of the process of encouraging critical thinking, make students aware—that simulation games are constrained by their very medium to provide certain interpretations of the past.

Tip Three: Remember, Simulation Games are Simulations
First, simulation games, because they are games, often tend to deal with clear-cut goals: build this city, raise this amount of wealth, win this battle, manage this conflict. While historical actors certainly could have such clarity of purpose, games tend to present historical roles, goals, and methods for achieving goals with an idealized precision and accuracy. This is, in fact, one of the great strengths of simulation games as a representational medium, but teachers and students should still consider and analyze potential differences between the game and reality in this respect.

Second, simulation games generally focus on making trade-offs between quantifiable resources—they are computer models, after all, and computers are nothing more than billions of binary switches combined to magnificent effect. This can lead to all manner of terrific insights about humans and systems, but often at the expense of the historical narrative of what actually did happen. This is not a weakness, per se. Indeed, understanding that the past was not pre-determined and humans had a variety of options, albeit within a set of constraints, is a strength of simulation games. Nevertheless, it is important that teachers and students consider the difference between historically valid narrative, which attempts to reproduce what did happen and why, and a historically valid simulation, which attempts to model the variety of things that could have happened and why.

Finally, it’s important to remember that simulation games are one powerful tool for studying the past. They are not the only powerful tool and any rich environment for studying history should include a balanced variety of resources including primary sources, quantitative data, historical narratives, images, and/or film, among others. Certainly, it should be at the heart of 21st-century history for students to reconstruct the past critically through a wide variety of media.

Given the constraints of the classroom, the time required to learn and play the game meaningfully is perhaps as important as the reasonableness of the game’s interpretations. There are no hard and fast rules for determining the difficulty of a game. While some students may find a game easier to play than the teacher, it is simply not the case that adolescents are categorically skilled at playing computer games. The teacher must consider how long it will take to learn to play a given game and make preparations to instruct students who have difficulty. Likewise, there is no simple formula for assessing how long it will take to play a game sufficiently to understand and analyze its models. The minimum amount of time required to play a game is not the same as the amount of time needed to appreciate a game in-depth.

As an effort to bring some order to this uncertainty, this segment concludes with a rough categorization of games (with examples from U.S. history) according to the amount of time needed to learn and play them. Three caveats are in order. First, these are estimates based on my own classroom experiences; others’ experiences will vary. Second, if the resources of a school allow it, the time required to play a game does not all need to be class time: students can also play on their own in labs and for homework (again, if resources allow). Third, these time estimates assume each student learns and plays the game. As we will see in future installments, effective simulation lessons can be taught in which the teacher runs the game and the whole class participates in making decisions. These sessions will take less time to execute.

These games are relatively simple to learn and play.

• Jamestown Online Adventure
• One episode of For Crown or Colony
• Chevron’s Energyville
• Most ICivics Games

These games require a bit more time to learn and/or play and consist of lengthier browser-based games and less complicated commercial desktop games.

• The Political Machine (commercial)
• All of For Crown or Colony
• USC’s The Redistricting Game
• Sid Meier’s Pirates (commercial)

Full commercial games that require time to learn to play and additional time to actually experience gameplay in detail.

• Empire: Total War (commercial)
• Democracy 2 (commercial)
• President Forever and Congress Forever (commercial)

The most detailed and sophisticated of the simulation games. Generally speaking, teachers new to using simulations in the classroom should postpone games in this category until they are comfortable using simulation games in the classroom

• Making History: The Calm and the Storm (commercial)
• Hearts of Iron II and Hearts of Iron III (commercial)
• Birth of America I and Birth of America II (commercial)
• American Civil War—The Blue and the Grey (commercial)

The third part of this series will survey instructional strategies for teaching students to play simulation games.

(Note: This blog entry is the third part of a six-part series. Read more on using games in the classroom in parts one, two, four, five, and six.)

At the heart of any lesson or unit involving a simulation game is a three-step structure. First, students must learn to play the game; once they have learned to play they should observe and analyze the game; finally they must discuss and evaluate the game. Throughout these steps, the teacher serves as the critical learning expert and facilitator. This installment in my series of blog entries on games (see Part One and Part Two) explores the first two steps in detail, leaving issues of discussion, evaluation, and assessment for the next entry in the series. Before beginning, however, it is important to note these steps assume students will play the game individually or in small groups on a set of computers. This is not the only way to use simulations effectively in the classroom, however, and other configurations will be discussed in the next installment.

The misconception persists that those born in the past 20 years are naturally gifted with the ability to play all video games. The reality is far more complicated. While it is probably the case that most students are more familiar with computers than prior generations, that level of familiarity is uneven and often of little help when playing computer strategy games. Texting on a smartphone, navigating a webpage, and connecting through Facebook are not the same as playing a historical strategy game. To press the point a bit further, students who do identify themselves as skilled gamers are often skilled at console games like Halo that emphasize hand-eye coordination and swift tactical executions rather than the slower, often more complicated strategic planning and analysis required by historical simulation games. In short, while some students take to simulation games swiftly, many more do not.

Accordingly, teachers must apply their pedagogical skills to teaching students how to play the games they will use in class. The amount of formal instruction required to learn a game will vary: short browser-based games take the least amount of time to learn (+/- 10 to 20 minutes) and complicated desktop games take the most (20 minutes to two hours). The basic steps for teaching students to play remain the same:

1. Introduce the game: Explain to students what the game simulates and why they are playing the game. This is a good time to talk about the advantages of simulations and the idea that they are interpretations of the past, not absolute truths.
2. Provide direct instruction on gameplay: Though it may seem counterintiuitive to lecture about a game, providing an overview of gameplay is an important first step in training students to play. Ideally, the instructor can project the game for the class to see and show students how to begin the game, execute basic decisions, and achieve goals. The teacher can provide this instruction or ask a qualified student—i.e. one who knows how to play—to do so. During this instruction students should be encouraged to take notes and ask questions.
3. Practice: Once students have received an overview of gameplay they should shift to learning by playing the game directly. It is very important at this point not to rush students to form conclusions about the game’s representations of the past. Students can get lost and demoralized when asked to comment on the game before they have truly learned the basics. Again, the amount of time needed will vary greatly with the difficulty of the game. Whatever the amount, however, save the important analysis and evaluation questions for later. Failing to do so is an easy mistake for a teacher to make, and can undermine the entire exercise.
4. Provide introductory gameplay goals that promote comprehension: This is most relevant for sophisticated games like Civilization that take time to play and comprehend. Rather than focus on the big picture of the game, provide students with some simple goals in-game that they cannot achieve without learning the basics of gameplay: playing to a certain year, building a specific number of things, making a certain amount of money, etc. The point is to provide students with a smaller, more manageable goal than that provided by the actual victory conditions of the game.

After an initial period of learning, students should shift to observing and analyzing the workings of the simulation purposefully as they play. Since the whole point of working with simulations is to learn, not be entertained, this shift is critical. Some students can manage taking notes as they play. Many will find themselves too engrossed to do so, however, and it is a good idea to pause play for the class every 20 or 30 minutes and instruct students to spend five minutes making notes.

Providing guidelines helps foster the most effective observations. For example, students can be asked to note:

• The role of the player in the game world and the challenges the game world presents;
• The actions the player takes to overcome the challenges;
• The decisions players must make between competing choices and the ways that finite resources limit the number and kinds of actions they can take in the game;
• The strategies and actions that lead to success or failure and the measurement of success and failure in the game.

The more sophisticated the game, the more a general set of guidelines for observations will help. Many short web-based games, however, are simple enough that players can record every major choice they make, their reasons for doing so, and the impact of those choices on the game. Either way the goal of note-taking is not only to accustom students to the practice of observation and recording so critical for gathering evidence, but to encourage them to become familiar with the workings of the game—the better to reflect upon it, engage with it, and learn from the experience.

In addition to note-taking, providing students with comprehension and analysis questions helps students explore the details of the game. These are questions about basic gameplay that require an understanding of gameplay fundamentals. Screenshots from the game are helpful illustrations for these sorts of questions. So, for example, given the following screenshot from Energyville, students can identify and explain the functions of the:

• White buttons listed at the bottom
• The exclamation points over buildings
• The graph in the upper right column
• The meter in the lower right column
• The information provided for the petroleum option selected

These kinds of comprehension questions serve multiple purposes. First, a student must understand the basics of gameplay to answer these questions, so they reinforce what has been learned and point out what still needs to be learned. Second, they help illuminate specific components of the game—the supporting details for its interpretation of the world. The answers to these questions provide observational evidence that students can use to unearth and critique the interpretations offered by the game.

If it is not yet apparent, the teacher is the critical conductor of this whole process. Simulation games cannot replace expert history teachers. Indeed, no resource can, for the teacher provides the critical expertise in historical thinking, as well as learning strategies to guide students in their analysis of the game. Effective teachers in classes playing simulation games are constantly on the move. Here they see students struggling with the game and offer suggestions and guidance; there they overhear a historical question raised by the game and have a mini-discussion with those students. They warn of the dangers of passively accepting a computer game, raise provocative questions about the nature of the past and the games, and serve as the leader when it comes to phrasing questions, researching, evaluating evidence, and forming reasonable conclusions. True, teachers are not the dispensers of all worth knowing in this model, but they are the essential experts, the project managers without which these exercises become unreflective gameplay or passive acceptance of an entertainment company’s presentation of the past.