Edugaming: An Education Revolution
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Check out these links to sites that propose games and methods to bring mainstream software games into the classroom for educational use. Here's a quick preview of edugaming from George Lucas' Edutopia. This organization believes that there is a distinct difference between games and simulations which begin with the educational intent. If we can overcome several obstacles simulations will the the wave of the future, creating more critical thinking students that truly understand the content.
Check out this site for a list of great internet gaming resources! -Edugaming Resources Edugaming Links & SummariesOnline Flash Games
· Our Courts: Argument War http://www.ourcourts.org/play-games/argument-wars This site is has a wealth of resources. As the center piece of this site are a series of 3 types of flash games put together as simulations of several controversial court decisions such as Miranda v Arizona. The categories include the following: ‘Do I have a Right’ which has to do with applying the Bill of Rights to a series of case studies. ‘Argument Wars’ which consists of a number of high profile cases in the setting of a courtroom. ‘Supreme Decisions’ which puts students at the center of Supreme Court decision making. In addition to the stimulating flash player case studies are a number of other great resources such as teacher guides, links to reports of recent court decisions, persuasive writing topics and a list of several other social studies online flash games made by CNN and The History Channel. This site is a government teacher’s best friend. This supports my area of research by contributing free online games that are entertaining and built for a structured educational purpose. · Ed-Heads http://www.edheads.org/ Ed-Heads is a site of flash games put together by Columbus and Hilliard Public schools in Ohio to act as a resource to get students actively involved with concepts they are studying in class. The site is funded by a number of private donors. Most of the flash games cover topics in the science and industrial arts fields. Each lesson comes with a series of videos that illustrate the topic of the game in real life. There are also a number of webquests and lesson plans put together by other teachers. For the most part these games are very simple and are designed for the elementary early middle school age because they do not really require much higher level thinking. Edugaming Comunities · Recommended Education Gaming List http://www.learningvillage.com/html/guide.html#social This community site provides a number of ratings and summaries of several games that can be used in the classroom. The site is designed by a number of educational professionals ranging from elementary education to the university level. For each game there is a report on fundamental ideas the game encourages. The site falls short with how exactly the game can be used and specific content standards the game might address. There are no provided lesson plans. Most of the games written about are strictly “educational” in intent. The games do not attempt to hide the learning process in a entertaining vessel. A useful part of this site is the matrix that lists several games that can be used in each educational discipline. · The Education Arcade http://www.educationarcade.org/ This site provides a couple great resources about how gaming can be linked with pedagogy. Funding for this organization comes from a collaborative effort between M.I.T. and Microsoft. The best piece from this site includes “The White Papers” which is an article about the benefit of gaming in the classroom. The article’s study is based off in classroom research completed by M.I.T. Finally the article addresses the main challenges faced with integrating the powerfully effective software tools in the classroom. The site also includes several games produced by software engineers for the classroom. The games can be downloaded for free from the site. Games include a variety of genres that range from the humanities to science. · Firaxis Games in Education http://www.firaxis.com/educators/ http://www.firaxis.com/community/teacher.php This network builds a sharing community for educational Firaxis games such as Civilization III. There are a list of sites that can be accessed by teachers to get ideas for implementing a structured classroom lesson set that correlate with curriculum standards. There are a large number of sites that tie together idea from several different Sid Meier computer games. The site also provides the strategy used by game designers to use “stealth learning” to make the learning experience for students more exciting. These are certainly a core set of fundamentals that teachers should think about while determining what games might be the most valuable and effective in implementing learning with entertainment. Computer Games · Civilization III: Civ. World http://civworld.gameslearningsociety.org/index.php Probably the best resource I found that directly supports education in the classroom using mainstream software. This site provides a number of downloadable maps for the game Civ III that mimic conditions at different points of world history. With each map comes a set of lesson plans, objectives, and key terms that will be learned through the scenario. This site acts as a benchmark for correlating mainstream computer software with education content standards. · Sim City 4: Learning Village.com http://www.learningvillage.com/html/rSimCity4.html This site is part of a write up about the potential uses for SimCity 4. There are some great general ideas recommending potential uses for the game in the classroom to teach specific content ideas. This review is written by a panel of educators from Canada that range from elementary to university educators. There are links that bring users to a store that offers the option to purchase the program. · SimCity Central: SimCity 4 Newbie Tutorial. April 13, 2004. http://www.simcitycentral.net/knowledge/simcity4/simcity-4-newbie-tutorial/ If teachers are to use software to teach concepts part of the learning curve involves the game interface. For teachers that need to have a resource for students to refer back to that explains things beyond the game manual this site acts as a “how to” guide for SimCity 4 in the classroom. The site includes a number of screenshots which are valuable for illustrating problem solutions that are need for successfully navigating the game. Edugaming Opinion · Sid Meier Interview: “Education is boring, learning is fun”. May 8, 2002 http://www.mindjack.com/interviews/sidmeier.html This interview with computer game designer Sid Meier, who has designed most of the “educational” humanities games talks about the intent of game design. When teachers are determining what types of games they use in the classroom they should think about the designers intent so that any bias is exposed. If the bias is exposed students can think critically about some of the short falls they game may have. · Stager, Gary. Edugaming a Bad Idea for All Ages. May 2007 http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1172 This link provides an opinion piece that refutes the use of games in the classroom. The author contends that gaming often discourages students and that it is too expensive to be practical. Also the author makes the point that computer games only reward students with more difficult challenges and requires skills such as cooperation and strategy adjustment which are not part of curriculum assessment so they have no real education value. This article is important to keep in mind while designing a software based curriculum that may come under attack. Developers must make sure that they take into the account the weaknesses of edugaming so that they can be addressed with solutions. Drake, John. Try Reason!: RailRoad Tycoon. February 25, 2009. http://trhome.blogspot.com/2009/02/railroad-tycoon.html This blog post acts as a good snapshot of challenges teachers may have with implementing detailed games in school to teach concepts. Will students try to cheat their way through instead of learning the concepts that need to be applied for success? This poster does a good job reflecting on his experience with this own son which could be similar to teacher’s experience with their students. · Van der Crabben, Jan. Civilized Education. April 3, 2006. http://planetcivilization.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Articles.Detail&id=22 This article exposes the benefits of using games such as Civilization III in the classroom. For example it discusses the decision making and higher level thinking that develops as a result of experiencing concepts as opposed to just reading them. There are several links to conferences and websites that address the idea of edugaming software and its benefits. · Squire, Kurt, Steinhueler, Constance. Library journal: Meet the Game. April 15, 2005. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA516033.html This article details a number of advantages for entertaining software that can be used for educational purposes. This at the end there is a list of a number of programs that can be used to teach in the classroom. Each link has a brief summary of the educational value of the program. Teachers can use this when determining which types of software they want to purchase to achieve their objective. |