How Do We Connect and Communicate?

Chapter 6 describes how games may support connection, community, and communication. Games are communities where civic deliberation and values-sharing take place. They also may be communities that foster harassment, exclusion, and cruelty. What are the best practices and strategies for supporting connections and communication using games? The chapter includes an overview of why communication matters in civics and ethics, and why games may support this. It also includes the limitations of using games to connect, and how to minimize those limitations. Finally, it reviews strategies that teachers can take to use games to practice skills related to communication and connection. It opens with the example of the game Way, and also shares four examples-in-action: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Lasers, Minecraft, and Argument Wars.