College Professor Requires Students to Study Portal

Tom Goldman

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Aug 17, 2009
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College Professor Requires Students to Study Portal



A teacher at Wabash College has been able to convince administration to include Portal on the required reading list.

Thanks to college professor Michael Abbott, Portal is now part of the educational requirements at Indiana's Wabash College. The game has been officially approved for inclusion into a seminar required for all freshmen students where they analyze "classic and contemporary works from all disciplines."

The course is "devoted to engaging students with fundamental questions of humanity from multiple perspectives and fostering a sense of community." It exposes students to poetry, the works of Aristotle, Shakespeare's Hamlet, and now Portal as well.

Abbott was able to convince his non-gamer colleagues to include the game in the course's requirements as a "non-textual" source by aligning it directly with Erving Goffman's Steam [http://www.amazon.com/Presentation-Self-Everyday-Life/dp/0385094027/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282501923&sr=8-1] wasn't going to install a virus, he proved Portal to be an example of the "backstage machination and onstage performance" aspect of humanity that Goffman presents.

Now, after reading Goffman, students will follow it up with a playthrough of Portal. This is only the beginning of Abbott's schemes, as he's seemingly planning more videogame integration into the course, but he calls Portal a "good first impression" and "lead-off hitter" for instructors not used to teaching with videogames. Strangely enough, co-op campaign [http://www.amazon.com/Portal-2-Pc/dp/B002I0JIQW/ref=sr_1_5?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1282502626&sr=1-5] focuses on questions of humanity as well, so perhaps the sequel could be an easy progression for next year's class.

Source: Slashdot [http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brainy_gamer/2010/08/portal-booklist.html]

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MrPop

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Ok I didn't really understand the 'backstage' stuff but that seems pretty cool I guess. What does it have to do with the course though. I don't understand really...

I'm guessing I'll take a peep at the guys book and then maybe be put off if it's too long.

EDIT: I'm guessing near the end where Glados says all the "why do you carry on", "Nobody loves you" is kinda linked maybe. Also I thought the book would be a PDF document for some reason. Someone explain.
 

Tom Goldman

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Aug 17, 2009
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MrPop said:
Ok I didn't really understand the 'backstage' stuff but that seems pretty cool I guess. What does it have to do with the course though. I don't understand really...

I'm guessing I'll take a peep at the guys book and then maybe be put off if it's too long.
The cake. It was a lie.
 

SomeBritishDude

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MrPop said:
Ok I didn't really understand the 'backstage' stuff but that seems pretty cool I guess. What does it have to do with the course though. I don't understand really...
Well Portals essentially broke down into two main acts; One in which your rat within GLaDOSs testing facility and the second in which you go "backstage", breaking away from the illusion and seeing the seedy underbelly, which is reflected in GLaDOSs hysteria and madness in this section.
 

MellowFellow

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I wish I had a teacher who gave us homework of playing videogames, I would feel more inclined to do it.
 

MrPop

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Tom Goldman said:
MrPop said:
Ok I didn't really understand the 'backstage' stuff but that seems pretty cool I guess. What does it have to do with the course though. I don't understand really...

I'm guessing I'll take a peep at the guys book and then maybe be put off if it's too long.
The cake. It was a lie.
So I'm guessing it's referring to the tests and the dark reality behind them where things aren't as they seem? That seems pretty obvious when I thought about it a bit. Kinda slow today.
 

Urgh76

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May 27, 2009
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*Student sits up in class*

"THIS CLASS WAS A LIE!"

In all seriousness though, Best.. Teacher... Ever..
 

imnot

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lucky'est bastards on the planet, wierdly a few days ago i was thinking "boy i wish they used portal to teach us about forward momentum at school, speedy thing goe's in speedy thing comes out and all that"
 

Sniper Team 4

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Wow. Wish this guy was my teacher.

However, I can see a downside to this. Not everyone plays video games, and while Portal is short, it can get confusing. Now imagine someone who's never played video games in their life picking it up and trying to play it. I hope he has a walkthrough ready for those people.
And don't get me started I how difficult it is for first-time players to get the hang of a mouse and keyboard control scheme (or controller for the matter).
 

Scout Tactical

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While the tie seems a bit circumstantial, I really like this teacher. Showing that videogames have deep, philosophical, and meaningful stories (as they sometimes do) is the first step to proving their medium as an artform (which is still in its infancy). Games like Assassin's Creed, Portal, and Bioshock all have something to say in their philosophies directly. This goes beyond games that are strictly meaningful in the way of elementary (Oregon Trail for leadership, Math Blaster for K-5 math, Treasure Mountain for various) or even advanced (Democracy 2 for politics) education that is shallow and lacking a storyline.

Sniper Team 4 said:
Wow. Wish this guy was my teacher.

However, I can see a downside to this. Not everyone plays video games, and while Portal is short, it can get confusing. Now imagine someone who's never played video games in their life picking it up and trying to play it. I hope he has a walkthrough ready for those people.
And don't get me started I how difficult it is for first-time players to get the hang of a mouse and keyboard control scheme (or controller for the matter).
IAWTC: I wish he had chosen a game that more new people could get into. Portal is amazing for us, but as Yahtzee noted not long ago, it's scary and difficult to enter the digital 3D world if you never have before.
 

HT_Black

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Hm. Classy. I approve whole-heartedly. Get em' reading Watchmen(or playing Deus Ex) and we'll have something really going there.
 

Nazz3

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LordCuthberton said:
konor77 said:
is this the first time something like this has happened?
I'm guessing so seeing as it's a newspost.

OT: I wouldn't like the sound of this as a homework.
You're joking?

Best. Homework. Evar
 

pejhmon

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Mar 2, 2010
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I still GTA was better for "engaging students with fundamental questions of humanity from multiple perspectives and fostering molesting a sense of community" but ok, Portal it is. :p