Some honors students at the 麻豆原创 are playing video games for homework as a nontraditional way to develop critical thinking skills.<\/p>\n
Students in \u201cGaming Literacy and Culture\u201d are asked to think critically about something they might not ordinarily think twice about. It\u2019s an approach common throughout 麻豆原创\u2019s Burnett Honors College, which teaches students to think about traditional subjects creatively as a way to help solve new challenges they may face in the 21st Century.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis semester, we’re spending time looking at games as texts to be critiqued,\u201d said Assistant Professor Rudy McDaniel. \u201cThis means identifying the various cultural and literary themes found in games and studying how players interact with games as \u2018readers.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The gaming class is just one option. Topics vary from fairy tales and baseball to medicine and music. They look for each theme\u2019s impact on culture and social norms.<\/p>\n
The goal of these unique academic offerings is to get students to embrace other points of view, a skill that will benefit them when faced with future challenges both inside and outside of the workplace. To achieve that, seminars are often taught by two faculty members from different disciplines so that students can experience a different type of learning.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy offering interdisciplinary seminars we expose our students to innovative, cutting-edge ideas and challenge them to think about their own discipline from the perspective of others,\u201d said Alvin Wang, the dean of the Burnett Honors College.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why each semester, students can choose from nearly 20 different honors seminars, such as \u201cReligion and Medicine\u201d and \u201cHow Music Affects the Brain.\u201d Honors students are required to take at least one interdisciplinary seminar to graduate.<\/p>\n
Since seminars are limited to about 20 seats per class, they give students from a variety of majors the opportunity to interact with and learn from one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of these students might have never spoken to each other if it wasn\u2019t for this class,\u201d said Lecturer Sybil St. Claire, who teaches \u201cTheatre for Social Change,\u201d a course that challenges students to explore social themes and use them to generate thought-provoking stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerican Indian Literature and Culture in Florida\u201d explores the history of Florida\u2019s natives through archival research, film and guest presentations. Earlier this semester, students in the course took a field trip to Wekiva Springs to learn about the land and traditions of the Timucua Indians.<\/p>\n
Other classes are meant to expose students to history, politics and foreign cultures as good background for their own analysis of today\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes a multi-faceted approach combined with interdisciplinary thinking to come up with answers to the complex issues that confront our society,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n