The Siren Song of Digital Simulation: Games, Procedural Rhetoric, and the Process of Historical Education

Constructing The Past As History

In order to express knowledge in a different format, whether that format is a digital simulation or a gamic representation of a scholarly argument, it is important to know how that knowledge exists. It is crucial to make that decision intentionally because it shows an epistemic awareness that we also want to see in students as critical thinkers. Epistemic cognition is particularly important for history students as valid representations of the past are constructed radically differently depending on the epistemic choices made. Epistemic cognition is the process that enables individuals to develop the criteria for limits and certainty of knowing (Maggioni, VanSledright, & Alexander, 2009), which enables a constructive approach to ambiguity as opposed to the common student misapprehension that historical certainty exists.