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Teachers Using Computer Games in Class

Posted by Zonk on

conq writes "BusinessWeek has a piece on the ways in which games are gaining acceptance in the classroom. From the article: 'Teachers across the country are bringing certain games into their schools as a way to pique students' interest in everything from history and politics to physical fitness and music theory. Among the most popular are Firaxis Games Inc.'s Civilization games, Take2's Railroad Tycoon, and Dance Dance Revolution.'"

9 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Stock Exchange by foundme · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One of our lecturers asked us to participate in a stock exchange game, and had the nerve to bet that we wouldn't do well.

    Sure enough we did well, mainly because we students as one big syndicate is simply too powerful in term of market manipulation, and the fact that one is more risk-taking with fake money. So I guess we did learn something out of it.

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    Please stop entering code 2,2,7,6,6,4
  2. Not New by warmgun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How is the news? I recall playing Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, and Odell Lake around 15 years ago!

    1. Re:Not New by jchenx · · Score: 2, Informative

      I believe the difference is that those games, I believe, we designed to be "edutainment" titles, and the games that TFA is referring to are mainstream titles (Civ III, DDR, and Railroad Tycoon).

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      -- jchenx
  3. Lazy teaching! by Max+Threshold · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sounds like lazy teaching to me. I don't know about everybody else, but the one day a week I got to spend half an hour playing Oregon Trail never piqued my interest in anything except slacking off.

    1. Re:Lazy teaching! by trazom28 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe you learned something and didn't realize it.. ala passive learning. Yeah, you had fun playing Oregon Trail.. but didn't know you were learning planning, strategy, money management..

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    2. Re:Lazy teaching! by Fallingcow · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Speak for yourself, my experience with the Total War series (specifically Rome and Medieval) just saved my ass on the geography portion of a French civ. test. Well, that and my knowledge of the two world wars ;)

      A game called Shadow President (plus good ol' board games like Risk) taught me tons about politics, war, geography, and history. I played that thing for hours.

      Darklands, a game that I used to play and that I recently re-discovered (mmm, DosBox emulation) has tons to teach the player about life and beliefs in medieval Germany (Holy Roman Empire).

      Some of these things I could probably never have learned quite as well in a regular classroom, nor so quickly.

      And don't forget SimCity 2000 (or original Sim City or even one of the newer ones, if that's your thing). Budgeting, management of resources, planning skills. A hell of a learning tool for first-third graders.

      Granted, most of these I never played in school. Number Munchers and Oregon Trail was about it. But, used properly, games can kick ass at teaching all kinds of things.

    3. Re:Lazy teaching! by Max+Threshold · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So in other words, you learned shallow and fictionalized versions of the above. Well, good. At least you're in good company.

  4. MMORPG as teaching tool by diagonti · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One of my housemates is doing graduate work in education. We've spent a while theorizing how to use a MMORPG with a working player driven economy (like Puzzle Pirates / http://www.puzzlepirates.com/ ) as a teaching aid. We are pretty certain that with the right sort of guidance, a MMORPG could be the ultimate teaching tool for group interactions (like economics). We came to this conclusion after he saw me giving officer training to a new officer in which I was sitting and explaining economic theory so that the new officer could be more successful in trading.

    Having taken a couple college classes dealing with marketing and economics, I can tell you the simulations don't compare to actually playing against real people. The simulations are good, but people are better. And the MMORPG give a large base of willing people to learn from.

  5. Re:Old news to me...at least 10 years old. by pilkul · · Score: 4, Interesting
    kid with decent grades from becoming disinterested and totally clocking out of school (which I guess was considered a rational fear at the time)

    You laugh, but this is actually a serious problem. This study estimates that 25% of American gifted and talented students drop out of high school. Our lowest-common-denominator school system ensures that people with much more potential become demotivated and waste their chances.