A new computer game designed at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, is trying to link Shakespeare with shoot-'em-ups.
Two years and more than £22,000 in the making, 'Speare: The Literacy Arcade Game was rolled out earlier this month to mark the anniversary of Shakespeare's death.
According to its academic promoters, the game "fuses fast-paced online arcade game action with the curricular goals of literacy promotion" based on its use of Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet.
"In the style of classic arcade games, 'Speare launches the player into outer space on a mission to reclaim stolen knowledge (story traces) based on Shakespeare's plays. By collecting words, phrases, and facts through gameplay, 'Speare challenges its players to use information to become successful knowledge gatherers. Only through knowledge gathering can a player successfully complete the game."
Reuters quotes Daniel Fischlin, the professor who led the development project. He describes the innovation as "a way to capitalise on the time that kids spend on computers". Asked whether it might in fact trivialise learning, Fischlin added: "I don't know of another medium that has seven-year-olds spouting Shakespeare." The game was tested on one hundred 10 and 11-year-old pupils last winter.
The website linking to 'Speare also contains a database called Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare, developed by the university as an educational resource and promoted as the first of its kind in the world.
The site includes lesson plans for teachers, video interviews and stage production notes, and is said to have provided the inspiration for the game when professors realised the site's multimedia features were accessed mainly by young people. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy," as a certain famous playwright once wrote.
Meanwhile, for educators in need of a Shakespearean top-up, blogger Oronte offers a new wrinkle on the Bard's 'seven ages of man', this one having to do with the career evolution of university instructors:
1. Cluelessness
2. Terror
3. Hope
4. Competence
5. Hubris
6. Comeuppance
7. Sabbatical
Never mind. At least all's well that ends well.
