Curriculum+Guidelines

Ontario Ministry of Education - Media Studies Curriculum

The Ontario Ministry of Education has four strands for the English Secondary classroom:
 * 1) Oral Communication
 * 2) Reading and Literature Studies
 * 3) Writing
 * 4) Media Studies

All four of these strands are relevant to video games and virtual worlds, whereby students must read text in order to understand how to play and communicate via writing and sometimes orally with other players or the computer.

The Media Studies strand emphasizes that although traditional language skills involve understanding the word, media studies analyze the meaning of the word in connection to other forms of literacy including, image, sound, graphics. Media studies recognizes the importance of media on students' lives, in a culture where students spend a lot of time on the internet and playing video games. As educators, we want to be able to encourage the right critical tools in order to "read" theses visual texts and their messages. The Ministry writes that media texts "abound in our electronic information age, and the messages they convey, both overt and implied, can have a significant influence on students' lives. For this reason, critical thinking as it applies to media products and messages assumes a special significance. Understanding how media texts are constructed and why they are produced enables students to respond to them intelligently and responsibly." .

The skills that students gain in analyzing video games and virtual worlds include differentiating between reality and fiction in formats which look increasingly real, understanding the motives behind producers of texts, evaluating the credibility of sources, recognizing bias, equity and social justice issues include discriminatory portrayals of people of colour, sexual miniorities, people with disabilities, etc. Furthermore, by asking students to be producers of their own texts, they experience important opportunities to engage in the curriculum, to make it relevant to their own interests, learn important technology skills that may help with career development.