Hello, friends of CMich Press and The Blue Way!
Today we want to introduce you to Dr. Ray Kimball, one of the authors behind The Blue Way Curriculum Guide, and share a bit of his experience. (If you have played Eyeball to Eyeball: The Cuban Missile Crisis from CMich Press, you already know his work!) Read on for more!
Q: What is your background/connection to education and games?
RK: I started using games as a junior faculty member at West Point in 2005 because I was teaching in the core first-year history curriculum, which meant half of my students at any given time weren't taking the class voluntarily. I needed something to keep them engaged, and classroom tabletop and role playing games quickly became the way I did that. 20 years on, I've been creating classroom games and helping others do the same. I currently run an educational games coaching service helping higher ed and corporate educators bring games into their learning spaces. [42 Educational Games Coaching and Design]
Q: What did your process look like for creating the Curriculum Guide? RK: It was really important to me to understand Jason's vision for the game and how he wanted people to experience it. Reading some older interviews about the first edition and a
Beyond Solitaire podcast about the CMU revision was incredibly helpful to me in creating material that was respectful to the game itself. Then I put myself in the shoes of a teacher playing the game: What could potentially go wrong? Where were my students most likely to struggle in the game? What were the portions most likely to generate "aha" moments? At the same time, I tried to think about all of the different types of classes that might use this game, both in terms of subject matter and size, composition, etc. The result (I hope) is a document that makes the game accessible without compromising the core ideas of the game.
Q: What element was the most challenging to develop?
RK: Although The Blue Way doesn't directly reference any particular historical era, it draws heavily from several that are outside of my general area of expertise. I felt compelled to explore some of the recent scholarship on the lived experience of colonialism to make sure the things I was creating were both academically rigorous and useful from a classroom context. Jon Truitt was incredibly helpful in this respect, steering me to some work on the colonization of Mesoamerica that I would never have found on my own.
Q: What from The Blue Way and its Curriculum Guide would you be most excited to use in your own teaching space?
RK: I'm always excited to get a new game from CMU Press into my hands! For this game especially, I'm excited about the new artwork. It creates such an amazing sense of dread and dehumanization that perfectly captures the game's themes.
Q: Do you have any advice for educators who are considering using games in their classrooms but haven’t made the leap yet?
RK: Find something that's familiar to you and start there. You probably have more games in your life than you might think, and some component of one of them is just waiting to be put to use in your class. And if that’s too much of a struggle, just hire me. :D
Q: Do you have anything else you’d like to share?
RK: If The Blue Way is your first introduction to CMU Press games, welcome! I hope you’ll explore their library of other games to see the amazing stuff they have on offer - including my game, Eyeball to Eyeball: The Cuban Missile Crisis. If you’re a returning CMU Press customer, thanks for joining me in supporting this incredible outlet and their work. Either way, I hope you’ll jump on the Backerkit when it opens in June!
***
Thanks, Ray! We are so excited for the upcoming launch for The Blue Way -- only a few days now! Follow the prelaunch page to get an alert when we go live on June 16th!
