Researching my Role for Myself: Reacting to the Past and Information Literacy

In Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College (Harvard UP, 2014) Mark Carnes argues that curricula such as “Reacting to the Past” engages students in subversive play in order to succeed in instilling concepts that have proved difficult to teach by other methods: critical thinking, empathy, leadership, a realistic view of history, and ultimately a better understanding of themselves. Such experiences, we have found, also foster inquiry and strategic thinking, core concepts of ACRL’s framework for information literacy.

Participants will experience an abbreviated “game day” session from the Reacting to the Past curriculum, to illustrate how the role playing game can inspire student’s interest and creativity, especially as information users. Dr. Allison Belzer and experienced student players from her “Reacting” courses will lead the game play. Dr. Belzer will present her experience using the “Reacting” curriculum in her History courses, specifically how it impacts her students' information literacy skills. Caroline Hopkinson will share her experience creating LibGuides for the course and how “Reacting” contributes to students understanding of “Research as Inquiry” and “Searching as Strategic Exploration.” The workshop aims to provide a good introduction to the games and their usefulness for developing information literacy concepts in order to inspire teachers to adopt the curriculum and librarians to support the curriculum.