Summary: Bill Bigelow writes in his article, "On the Road to Cultural Bias: A Critique of the Oregon Trail CD Rom" that the game is culturally bias and insensitive. He explains that there is much historical fiction regarding what happened with women, African Americans, and Native Americans. The game begins by not allowing the player to choose whether they would like to be a women or African American. Therefore, the only option is to be a white male. (The choice you do get is more so about economic status you wish to be a part of - a whole different issue entirely.) You encounter women about half the time in the game to speak with, but the only role the game shows women taking on is tending to the ill. This is historically inacturate because women played a huge role in the wagon train making decisions about food and fire. The game makers also hint at African Americans in the game being enslaved, but it never explicitly says so. The game is also historically inaccurate about the roles and attitudes of Native Americans. The game does have some good points for teaching that Bigelow points out. It will give students an accurate idea of the terrain and map from Missouri to Oregon. Bigelow suggests at the end of his article, to find ways to fill in the gaps and inconsistancies in the game. Finding journals, diaries, and speechs are great ways to supplement the game. Then, once all has been said and learned, have the students role play the roles of the people on the Oregon Trail. In the end, Bigelow expresses that computer literacy is vital for students to be able to decipher between what is fact and fiction because in todays society, computers and computer programs do take sides.
Reflection: Wow, that was a long summary. That was a long article. I must say as a kid I never noticed all of the things that Bigelow had pointed out as historically inaccurate, but now that I think back on when I played the game, I realize that he was correct. I also can't say that it has had an effect on me by manipulating me to think like a white male. I think that Bigelow does make a great point at the end. Use the game, but supplement it with researching the truth. Find out what the missing role were and have the stuents research and learn for themselves. Plus, a role play at the end of the unit would be fun. We had something like that in middle school with the civil war times and we came dressed up in costume with a background story to act out. It was a blast and I can still remember the information I learned for my character. It could be one giant Oregon Trail Expedition Day, or something crazy like that.
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Your experince with the Civil War project sounds great! That would be a very exciting project, and when it comes to matters of diversity and understanding, role plays sound like a premier activity. When encountering subject matter that had bias in school, I think we all felt a litte uncomfortable. I really like the idea of role playing, as it would give all students a better understanding of the attitudes and more importantly, worth of minority groups in society.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like we are going to have many opportunities to allow students to 'supplement (curriculum) by researching the truth', especially when it comes to history. I loved this game as a kid and like you did not even consider that it had me thinking like a white male. This was a great reminder of how critical we have to be of the information that we are sharing with our students as 'truth'.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of a role play also, and agreed that looking back as adults sheds light on many things that we never noticed as children. Due to this fact, it is vital the we as eduators work our best to provide instruction and materials free from bias that include all perspectives.
ReplyDeleteMia, I agree with you that when I played this game in school I never realized all the biases present in the material. However, now I can see that there are many biases present in this game and others. I think that this game is just one of many of the numerous examples of how bias is an unfortunate integral part into a lot of history and information that we are presented with daily. It will be essential that as educators we work to present our students with bias free information, but it may also be useful to provide students with opportunities to find bias in the material themselves in order to allow them to become more critical and analytical thinkers. I like your idea of role play I think that it is one great example of how we can work as teachers to help history become tangible to students.
ReplyDeleteMia:: As a kid I never noticed all of the things that Bigelow had pointed out as historically inaccurate either. And I too realize that he is correct. I also agree with your comment saying that it has not an effect on me by manipulating me to think like a white male. I never thought that as a third grader, or however old I was then. However, in the end I again agree with you when you said, use the game, but supplement it with researching the truth. Good reflection Mia!
ReplyDeleteYeah I totally agree, I think it is really cool that Bigelow decides to keep playing the game, but then learn from it, see what and who is missing. Use the game as a prompt to see what is missing, how other people might feel, get the kids thinking. I also think that he had some pretty exciting ideas for other activities the students could do that could incorporate the game still. Really I had never even thought about so many things he had brought up before now!
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