I am extremely jealous. I remember not being able to play pogs in the hallway, because my friends and I had to stay after class to try and get our gameboy back. We would receive the lecture from our teacher about videogames rotting our brains and how playing them in class was a capital offense. Well, times have changed.
According to Wired, in a recent Games for Change conference former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’conner discussed her latest venture to help young Americans… she is making videogames.
“Our Courts”, the online civic engagement project she is developing with James Paul Gee, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is designed to help seventh and eighth graders learn about the legal system. According to O’Conner, “The game lets students engage in real issues and real problems.”
This is a definite turnaround from the past perspective.
The G4C conference website suggests other uses for games, “as this technology matures, there is a new trend emerging: harnessing the power of this popular medium for more “serious purposes”. Fighting poverty. Training protesters in peaceful resistance to oppressive regimes. Promoting peace in the Middle East. Exploring the processes of gerrymandering. The list goes on.”
This is awesome! Finally, progress is being made for learning in schools. I hope this is the first step to more creative software meant to engage students and allow them to collaborate. Maybe schools will begin to realize that new methods of teaching are necessary to keep up with its students.
I’m glad that there may be more games designed specifically for educational purposes. I remember spending hours as a kid playing number munchers and as a result know every single prime number up to 100 memorized (at least I used to). However, since this game drew a crowd any time someone was about to set a new high score, it was eventually banned from the classroom. It’s a shame, because number munchers got a lot of people more interested in math.
I would be truly impressed by this movement if it allowed kids to play a game like Age of Empires in a history class. Imagine how much easier it would be to get kids to do their homework if it included conquering Europe as Saladin or playing as Joan of Arc leading the French into battle. Age of Empires also had a massive encyclopedia of each unit, structure and event in the game that can further teach children about history. Even though the game was designed for entertainment, it had huge educational value.
I can only imagine the potential of games designed with education in mind that also utilizes the latest web 2.0 technologies. The possibilities make me want to be a kid again.
You kids these days! When I was a kid, all we had to play with Irwin Mainway’s Bag o’ Glass, and WE LIKED IT!
We also watched too much SNL, which apparently turned our brains to mush.
Katie: that was such a classic episode! You have to love Dan Akroyd in that bit.
In response to the article, I yesterday attended an info session at my daughter’s new school, where the staff explained that when kids’ interest is fully engaged in a project, it ceases to be perceived as work, and becomes more like play.
Teachers have long known this, and have often used games as one way to engage kids. The classroom just has to catch up to the technology available. This, of course, requires political will and good old cash money.