Sarah M. Spalding, “Game of Thrones and Gaming the History Classroom,” The History Teacher 54, no.3 (March 2021): 569-590.

“While many begin the class thinking they will just check off a university requirement, they are soon working with their peers in teams trying to win the class game by demonstrating their understanding of the historical context, chronology, and sources.”

Spalding writes a very thoughtful and intriguing article where she discusses how her classroom is a “gaming-classroom.” She created a historical game for class based upon the hit TV show, Game of Thrones. By using Game of Thrones, she structured her courses in a way that seeks to solve problems that plague many history courses serving university requirements. Specifically, she discusses how the gaming classroom can serve as a solution to the issue of engaging majors and non-majors alike in courses where students feel as though they are “forced” to enroll. This really resonates with the theme for this class, teaching history with new media. That is exactly what Spalding did by “game-ifying” her classroom. It offered students a different experience while learning that made them more confident and engaged in the classroom.

“To set up the game for the classroom, I create instructions for all students and post them to the class’s learning management system.”

While I was reading, I got to the section about the historical game that is based on Game of Thrones, and I started thinking. “This is a lot.” Yes, the gaming classroom has been proven, by Spalding, to serve as a solution to the issue of engaging majors and non-majors alike by offered a unique learning environment/experience. However, wouldn’t the extra planning, student freedom, and an often quick-pace curriculum truly work with a gaming classroom? Most of the article was discussing how the game-ification worked and the functions of the historical game. Yes, the students were recalling information and competing in class to see who could win the game by demonstrating their superior historical understanding. But how did her students do on the out of class work and final exams? Were the scores higher or lower than the Reacting to the Past model?

“As per the rules I have set, the students can choose to use this blank card in any way. Students can choose to create a “time machine” card out of it, so that they are not left with cards at the end of the round and penalized. Or, students can create any historical event, figure, or idea and play that card on the board.”

Spalding’s article was very interesting to read about as I have never heard of a gaming classroom. The results of her experiment were amazing, with students raving about how engaging and fun her class was! Reading the comments the students left during the survey reinforced what Spalding was arguing about the benefits of the gaming classroom. However, the article offers no alternative view of the gaming classroom. Not often does everyone think something is so great, so I wonder what some students truly thought of the game-ificiation. I also wish that Spalding offered a visual representation of the gaming classroom to prove how it functions and flows. Only reading about it offers so much, while seeing it happen can physically prove what the author is arguing. Spalding could have offered a link to a video that shows the gaming classroom in-action. She also could have including physical images within the article of the game cards for the reader to see. There was many instructions, feedback, and research within the article, some of the main ideas were lost.