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Accepting Games Into Education

Posted by simoniker on from the bachelor's-degree-in-kirby-studies dept.

Thanks to Ludology.org for pointing to a Chronicle Of Higher Education article discussing the emerging use of games as an academic subject and educational tool. Although there are sceptics, such as David Breneman from the University Of Virginia, who says: "Horsing around with these games might teach problem solving, but you don't learn anything about the world", it's suggested that educators could modify existing games: "An instructor who knows something about games or computers could customize The Sims or Civilization for a study of, say, Roman history", but that few game designers truly understand what makes a game educational: "People seem to think that anything you click on is a game... designers come out with products that have a shellac of quizzing on top of a game."

2 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Sim Marcus Aurelius by Bonewalker · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I like this concept as an additional way of learning, not as the only tool in use.

    The article mentioned something though that could be really cool and promote a better understanding of history, or culture, or what have you. A Sims Roman-Style game could let you play the part of an emperor, government official, gladiator, or peasant in the Roman world. From there, you could make the same types of decisions for your sim character based on historical data. And, of course, you aren't limited to just Roman history, any and all major cultures could be recreated. Sounds fascinating to me.

    But, another poster did present one valid problem...you would have to convince the game company they could make money off this deal, or they wouldn't put the time and effort into it that it would really require in order to be fun and educational.

  2. Speaking of Roman History... by FouRPlaY · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Someone once asked me what I knew about the fall of the Roman Empire. I proceded to rattle off everything I remembered from Age Of Empires II. I turned to my friend, who was a Classics major at university, and asked if that was right. He said I had just summed up everything he learned for his degree.

    Go video games! =)