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T U E S D A Y , 3 J U L Y 2 0 1 2
Book Review: 'Digital Play' by Kyle Mawer & Graham Stanley
Kyle Mawer and Graham Stanley are two gaming enthusiasts who, after seeing the potential
of computer games of various sorts in language teaching, went on to post their ideas on the
Digital Play blog before finally researching and writing this book.
The principle is eminently attractive: learning language through playing, in this case, already
phenomenally popular computer video games of one kind or another.
The practical aspects, however, are another story altogether. I speak from experience of
letting classes of kids lose in the computer room; aims and rules are worth their weight in
gold, I can tell you.
That's where Digital Play comes into its own. The start of the book is all about the concepts
behind computer games and learning. Successive sections link computer games up with
society, education, language learning, language teaching and language aims. Each section is
fascinating and revelatory in its own right, as we realise the extent to which 'virtual' on-line
worlds have become virtual reality for a vast number of people.
As someone who has more or less avoided these things I'm keen to discover exactly where
we are with them now. I have to admit to two waves of on-line gaming addiction though.
The first was Second Life, the virtual world where you move your little 'avatar' around, build
things, buy things, 'socialise', and so on. You very quickly get dragged into spending some
decidedly unvirtual money and finally having a 'bad experience' (the 'land' I was renting to
hold my three stunning art and photography galleries was sold off behind my back,
ironically, to a games emporium developer) and moving on to other things.
The second round of addiction affliction was a game called Farmville, highly dependence
creating, not to mention contagious - the whole of my family was rapidly spending hours
clicking on virtual fields to grow virtual crops to buy virtual windmills and all sorts of
nonsense. I've been 'clean' for several months now, unless blogging falls into that category

of dangerous computer pastimes.
Anyway, after a dozen pages of good solid scene-setting, we have a glossary covering a
mind-boggling number of game genres, including adventure, first person shooter (FPS),
dressing up, arcade, singing and music, simulation, puzzle and role-playing games to name
but a few. So that's what people do in their spare time and when they're arriving late for
work...
Then there's an equally comprehensive list of sites about and supplying games, and then
many actual games themselves, under the triple whammy heading of Some great games,
great to play, great to use, so I can only assume they are.
The second part of the book, divided into four sections entitled Game on!, The nonconnected
classroom, The connected classroom, and Multiple connections, is where we get
down to business. Ninty-odd half to one-page lesson plans take us through one of the
aforementioned games from a teacher's perspective. There are indications for what to do to
prepare the students, guide them through the games and follow up afterwards, all concisely
presented in short bulletpointed lists.
The main skills focus of the exercises is given for each in terms of reading, writing, listening
and speaking, and the variety of ideas presented is admirable and goes far beyond just
playing the game in English or describing what they did afterwards which would be a recipe
for lazy language teaching and inefficient learning.
The third and final part of the book is for teachers who would like to take things to the next
level. Notably on integrating their new digital teaching passion into an existing, possibly
inflexible syllabus. Ways of developing further are also covered, including new teaching
paradigmes for the 21st century, reading up on the extensive existing literature right the
way through to creating your own games and activities. The important aspect of computer
room management gets a nod and we should remember that the authors' Digital Play blog
often provides further ideas based on the concepts covered in the book.
Reviewed by Sab Will of Hotch Potch English
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