Previous Data on More Than 330,000 Patients Exposed at U. of Florida's Dental School |
Next Henry Jenkins, Prominent New-Media Scholar, to Leave MIT for U. of Southern California |
November 17, 2008, 04:36 PM ET
U. of Connecticut Creates Online Forum to Discuss 'Video Games and Human Values'
What’s the best argument against those who say video games are destroying society? That’s the first discussion topic fielded by a new online center about the intersection of video games and “human values.”
The center is led by Roger Travis, an associate professor of modern and classical languages at the University of Connecticut. He kicks off the discussion with his own take, which basically defends the cultural value of digital amusements:
“The best argument (in my classicist’s opinion) is that if the Iliad and the Odyssey didn’t destroy society, but instead made Western Civilization great, video games are quite possibly doing the same thing right now,” he writes. “Even if Plato thought Homer should be thrown out of the ideal state, it’s turned out, 2500 years later, that we can have our Plato, and our Homer too, and still do some pretty cool stuff, culture-wise.”
Michael Abbott, an associate professor of theater at Wabash College who is also working with the new online center, describes the project as an “online nexus for courses and scholarship to advance our understanding of how video games and their culture can constructively shape our values and enrich society.” —Jeffrey R. Young
Categories: Student-Life
Add Your Comment
Commenting is closed.