NationStates is a politically open community, which means there is little restriction on what people can do, say, or promote. This is necessary for the function of the game, but that comes with some serious considerations for its use in classrooms.
Embedded Files
Setting Up a Classroom Region
Setting Up a Classroom Region
NationStates has special protocols for creating classroom regions that are locked out of most of the rest of the "world". I recommend always making use of this option. You can find instructions for how to request setting up a classroom region at this link: NationStates for Educators. This page also includes lots of ideas and information regarding classroom use.
General Best Practices
General Best Practices
These are just some thoughts based on my use of NationStates - I will update this with suggestions if you have any.
Have a plan. I don't mean spend weeks preparing a huge project that may end up not working - I am a teacher, I know the sting of lost time on a failed attempt. However, I do recommend you spend time figuring out what you want to accomplish and how you want to achieve it. Find or make handouts that you will use with your students, and decide what elements of NationStates you'd like to include to achieve your goal. I've developed a basic Classroom Integration Guide to help you decide how to implement NationStates
Brief students. NationStates is a chance for students to express themselves through language, symbols, and decisions. This is a double-edged sword - students find all kinds of ways to express inappropriate content, references, or views in the classroom setting. Discuss with students ahead of time the expectations you have for their use of this tool, and enforce it with appropriate consequences. Remember, participation in a fancy activity like this is a privilege, not a right.
Screen information. Whenever possible, screen what students are exposed to in the program. You will have your own comfort level for your classroom, as well as school policies to follow. If you require more control over what students see, you may opt for Classroom-Centered Integration; if you are less worried about this, you may decide to use Student-Centered Integration (read more on the Classroom Integration page). Of course, how you choose to use NationStates will also shift the focus of students to particular sections of the program as well.
Create a safe space for them to discuss and debate. Take time to help students understand that not everyone has the same views, but that the best solutions come from discussing different ideas and then coming to some sort of consensus on the best path forward. Remind them frequently to be respectful of other students' views and suggestions, and that healthy discussion involves disagreement, and that this can happen without personally attacking or feeling personally attacked. When I first started using Nationstates in my classroom, I made sure to spend time on this before and during the use of the program.
Make them think, and make them record. The value in this program comes from the way it forces students to think about issues and countries. By having students record their responses, their thinking, and their reasoning, you are helping them create a valuable artifact of their growth and learning. In a case where you have them discuss as a group, make sure they have written down their own thoughts first - otherwise, they might just "chameleon" into the conversation without ever thinking about their own point of view. The first document on the Teaching Resources page gets students thinking about and recording their ideas about Issues.
Let me know if you have any other best practices for using NationStates in classrooms - I'd love to add them!
General Gameplay
General Gameplay
Within NationStates, there are a variety of different methods of "gameplay". In your classroom, you may choose to use only one aspect, pick and choose several, or implementing all aspects. Generally, there are three main areas of the game: the Nation, the Region, and the World.
NATION GAMEPLAY involves decisions and information only about the Nation. The following options are available:
Notices. Notices are the way that NationStates sends messages to users. Think of them as notifications.
Issues. Each Nation is provided with random Issues at a regular interval. The majority of NationStates revolves around resolving Issues. Issues influence many other aspects of the Nation, and are the driving force for the game.
Telegrams. Nations can send telegrams to each other and groups. In a classroom region, telegrams can only be sent between nations in that region.
Dossier. A user can add Nations and Regions of interest to their Dossier, which lets them see updates on those areas quickly and concisely. This would be useful in role play.
Activity. This will list all of the recent activity for the user's Nation, Region, and World (all of NationStates).
Settings. The user can make cosmetic changes to their Nation, as well as adjust settings like Issue frequency, Notice subscriptions, etc.
On the main Nation page, there are also a number of other features to explore:Factbook Entry. The Factbook is a log of information related to the Nation, entered in by the owner of the Nation.
Review Policies. Students can read the Policies currently in place in their government. These can't be edited directly, but they can be used as inspiration for Factbook entries or Issue decisions (resolving Issues with the goal of removing / restoring a policy.)
Review Statistics (People, Government, Economy) These areas allow the user to view information about leading causes of death, government expenditure, and economic information such as GPD, income, and public and private industry values. These can't be directly changed, but are influenced by decisions made in Issues.
View Rankings. Nations all contain statistics on a variety of Measures. The ranking section compares a Nation to the world and others in the region and ranks them. There are a variety of game-tracked Measures, such as Cheerfulness, Hours of Sunlight, Foreign Aid, Political Apathy, as well as a variety of Industries, such as Basket Weaving and Trout Fishing.
View Measure Trends. This section displays graphs showing how Measures have changed over time.
REGION GAMEPLAY involves decisions and powers that influence all Nations in the region. The following options are available:
(Be aware that there is no way to punish or negatively impact another Nation directly, so students can rest assured that their Nation's statistics will be unaffected by the "politics" surrounding them.)Use the "Local" option to focus on just regional posts.
Endorsements. Nations can offer their endorsement to any one Nation in a region. The Nation with the most endorsements in a region automatically becomes the Regional Delegate, which gives them a little more power in the World Gameplay, as well as control over some administrative settings of the region. The teacher holds the ultimate power over the region, no matter what.
View Factbooks. Other Nations' Factbook entries appear here in reverse chronological order. This is sort of like a "news feed".
Dispatches. Nations can post Bulletins and Accounts to the region, which can be viewed by all.
In addition to all of these options, the Founder (teacher) can also design and assign duties to nations as Regional Officers, which gives them a variety of administrative rights depending on how the Founder sets up those officers. These are fully customizable, so they can be themed for use in your classroom and you can fill them as you see fit (elections, appointments, etc.)
WORLD GAMEPLAY involves interacting with the World Assembly, which is the virtual equivalent of the United Nations.
Vote on Proposals. There are two proposals running at any given time on NationStates - one by the General Assembly, and another by the Security Council. For classroom purposes, the General Assembly proposal is likely the only of interest. Regional Delegates get 2 votes rather than 1, giving them slightly more voting power.
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