Dafur is Dying... Not just a game!

The group four tool I have decided to consider in depth is the game 'Dafur is Dying'.

The game is designed to highlight a major human rights issue- the genocide in Dafur, western Sudan.

The game starts by asking you to select someone from a Sudanese village to forage for water for the whole village. The person selected risks being captured, raped, or killed by the Janjaweed militia as they go on their mission. The younger the person, the less likely they will be harmed, but the less water they can carry.

The game also leads to the refugee camp, highlighting the problems the camps face, both internally (food, water, health) and externally (the militia). As you move through the game and make choices about characters and their actions the game explains what is it like in real life for the Sudanese people.

Dafur is Dying would be particularly relevant to a human rights unit or topic for legal studies. It could be used as an introductory tool to highlight human rights issues around the world. It might also be relevant to my English teaching area, depending on the topic.

How does the game enhance learning?

This game may enhance learning in the following ways:

• It involves the use of multimedia which allows for information to pass through two channels of the brain instead of one. Mayer and Anderson (in Swisher, 2007, p2) say that this allows for optimal learning.

• The game is an example of Bloom's 'Affective Domain' (Clark, 2010). "The affective domain includes the manner in which we deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiams, motivations, and attitudes," (Clark, 2010). The simulated game is likely to appeal to students' emotions.

Overall I think this game is fantastic for highlighting human rights issues. I cannot see any real downside to using it so long as it is used appropriately, ie, in accordance with the TPACK framework.


References

Clark, D. (2010) Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#affective.

Swisher, D. (2007) Does multimedia truly enhance learning? Moving beyond the visual media bandwagon toward instructional effectiveness. Retrieved from http://www.sal.ksu.edu/facultystaff/Swisher_ProfessionalDay07_paper.pdf