Games in Education

Games are an ancient form of social interaction. Long before Gameboys and Xbox 360, young Sumerian children played the Royal Game of Ur deep in the heart of Mesopotamia. Games persisted and flourished as industrial age machinery became capable of churning out millions of monopoly and boggle games. But not since going digital has the cultural impact of games been so phenomenal. Yearly sales are well into the billions and for most it’s not a question of if you play games, but rather what percentage of your day is occupied by them. Undoubtedly the popularity is due to technological advances that allow digital games designers to present players with scenarios that take them to marvelous new worlds, challenge them with complex strategy and above all engage them deeply in an enjoyable experience. Can educators learn something from the popular medium? Should we be using games in education or perhaps letting game design inform our instructional design?

Why Do Kids Love Games?

Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Engage Me or Enrage Me: What Today's Learners Demand - Marc Prensky

Game Genres

Genres - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_and_video_game_genres

Gamespot - http://www.gamespot.com/

Mini-Games

 Pop Cap - http://www.popcap.com/

Crazy Monkey - http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/

Mini-Clip - www.miniclip.com

 

Complex Games

Runescape - http://www.runescape.com/

Civilization -  Civ III http://www.civ3.com/ 
                    Civ IV - http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/home.htm

Black & White - http://www.lionhead.com/bw2/

Second Life - http://secondlife.com/ 
                     wikipedia def. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_life

America's Army - http://www.americasarmy.com/

How Can Teachers Learn More About Games?

 

New course teaches instructional gaming

Innovate Articles

Changing the Game:
What Happens When Video Games Enter the Classroom? (pdf)

MMOGs as Learning Environments:
An Ecological Journey into Quest Atlantis and The Sims Online  (pdf)

 

If you register at Innovate you can find more gaming related articles. Here are some titles:

• simSchool: The Game of Teaching
• What Would a State of the Art Instructional Video Game Look Like?
• What Can K-12 School Leaders Learn from Video Games and Gaming?

 

Educational Games

Marc Prensky's GamesParentsTeachers - http://www.gamesparentsteachers.com/

MuzzyLane  - http://www.muzzylane.com/

Social Impact Games - http://www.socialimpactgames.com/

PullUIn - http://www.creaturecontrolscience.com/introduction.html

Hazmat: First Person Responder - http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051102/carless_01b.shtml

Cancer Games (A First Person Shooter game for kids) -

http://www.re-mission.net/

 

 New Communications

Instant Messaging (IM)

Instant Messenger (MSN) - http://messenger.msn.com/Xp/Default.aspx

America Online Instant Messenger - http://www.aim.com/

ICQ - http://www.icq.com/

 

Tapped In - http://tappedin.org/tappedin/index.jsp

    info about Tapped In http://hale.pepperdine.edu/~jamathie/classlist/TI.htm

 

 

Internet Telephony or Voice over IP or VOIP

(def. at wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_telephony )

Skype - http://www.skype.com/