News

The Hightower Scholars wanted a teacher who could engage local students while preparing them for college during this year's revamped summer academy for minorities.

The nonprofit organization found Professor Harry Brown and his classes on video games.

Brown, 37, an associate professor of English at Indiana's DePauw University, said his interest in video games involves their narrative and how they contribute to story-telling.

"Games are an emerging art form, and they're worth studying," he said.

As designers push the boundaries and instill more meaning into their games, Brown said they will be considered more legitimate.

He noted movies initially weren't considered a serious art form and weren't studied as such until the latter third of the 20th Century.

From the printing press to the video camera, new technology continues to change the method of story telling and the stories themselves, Brown said.

"We're at the cusp of a cultural change," said Brown, whose book, "Videogames and Education," was published last fall.

Although some video games offer controversial levels of violence and other adult topics, Brown said many more can be useful educational tools.

"Used the right way, I don't think there's anything inherently flawed about the medium of video games," he said.

Brown is enjoying "Empire: Total War," a war-strategy game set in the 18th Century, and "Red Faction Guerilla," an action game set on Mars.

"I try to bring my work and my hobbies together as much as I can," Brown said.

Brown is presenting an introduction to ludology — the study of games — to five local middle- and high-school students at this week's Mary P. Graham Summer Academic Enhancement Academy.

The academy is offered to minority youngsters to encourage them to pursue higher education and give them a taste of what college life is like.

Diana Hightower, executive director of the academy and Hightower Scholars, said the academy was revamped this summer after a four-year hiatus.

Students attend morning sessions with Hightower, a college administrator, that focus on writing, vocabulary, communication and learning about college. In the afternoon, they work with Brown at Westmoreland County Community College's New Kensington Education Center.

Hightower said she met Brown while working at DePauw and thought his research would be an intriguing topic for academy students.

"It's meant to be interesting," Brown said. "But the topic is less important than instilling a work ethic and a sense of what's to come."

The students definitely are getting a sense of the work required in college, said Benjamin Johnson, a New Kensington teenager who will enter ninth grade at Cheswick Christian Academy in the fall.

Johnson, 14, said he's doing a lot of reading, writing and studying for his weeklong summer classes.

"I think it's really good because it's showing us the hard work and perseverance we need," said Johnson, who would like to attend an engineering college. His interests include architecture, urban design and photography.

Johnson, who plays sports-oriented video games, said he's enjoyed Brown's class, the final project in which will be for students to create a concept for a video game.

"Usually people think of video games as just playing, but they can teach us things like survival skills and critical thinking," Johnson said. "Sometimes it's almost subconscious."

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News