Canadian Students Play Civ3 to Teach History

[RationalGoblin]

The link is strong in this one. (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6171872.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;11)

Discuss.

... Anyone else find this hilarous?

[Lord Magtok]

The link is strong in this one. (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6171872.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;11)

Discuss.

... Anyone else find this hilarous?

Wow. Maybe I should try to convince my parents to move to Canada.

[Emperor Ing]

uhhh are you joking O_o

Thats...both awesome and seriously ****ed up!! Y cant all classes be that L33T? I mean my little bro says that DDR is part of his Gym class now. :smallannoyed:

[Nerd-o-rama]

Huh.

...Huh.

Well, as long as they're using a mod and not the core game to teach history, that's pretty neat.

[Glaivemaster]

Hmm. I remember back when me and my friends played a lot of Civ 3. One of my friends could only play because he convinced his mother that the game was historically educational

I've grown used to the idea

[Mr. Moon]

...

I really need to talk to my Socials teacher about this.

[tgva8889]

Actually, we used to play Civ 2 to teach history at our school in 7th grade before we got another program. Oh, and before someone took over the world before the teacher had finished explaining how to play the game.

[Om]

So why did the American march north during the 1812 conflict fail? Because they had no access to iron supplies :smallamused:

[Setra]

Lucky students.

Then again when I was young I played Oregen Trail 3.

That was fun, but everyone kept dying.

[Demented]

Oregon Trail: An exercise in how to kill familial relatives in the slowest, most painful method possible. Repeatedly.

Ye olde Sim games were much more fun.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

Personally, I find this kinda sad. Seems to me that's just the easy way out for a teacher who doesn't want to actually put a curriculum together. There's just too much to history to put into one game to make it functional as a learning tool.

[Demented]

That depends on how limited you think games are.

Most games focused on education tend to have their game mechanics interrupted by an emphasis on education.
Likewise, most games that are slightly historical usually only have historical details as an aside.

Ideally, a game would (and could) mix the two seamlessly.
Of course, making such a game would go far beyond any teacher's curriculum.
And it's probably not that conducive of a teaching environment, either. Not there's no argument for merging normal life and education, as with infants and toddlers, but that's far too advanced for current teaching infrastructure. Maybe in the distant future...


Also, there's nothing saying that the game itself (more accurately, a mod of the game with an educational bent) is the entire class. It's probably just a very small part, perhaps not even a direct part of the curriculum.

[Setra]

Personally, I find this kinda sad. Seems to me that's just the easy way out for a teacher who doesn't want to actually put a curriculum together. There's just too much to history to put into one game to make it functional as a learning tool.
Yeah but it would be more interesting than just reading history books.

I learn more about the Civil War from one Show on the History Channel, than I do from years of School.

Because TV is more entertaining.

[The Evil Thing]

This may be funny on the surface but I just read this as a gimmick to make the school/class seem 'cool' for using games. Civ 3 is nowhere near in-depth enough to teach history in any form. After all, it's a TBS game, not a nation simulator.

It would be like using the main campaign of Rome: Total War to teach classics.

[Assasinater]

I would recommend Europa Universalis II instead, with the AGCEEP mod. It has far more accuracy with historical events.

[Om]

I would recommend Europa Universalis II instead, with the AGCEEP mod. It has far more accuracy with historical events.Ditto. Although AGCEEP is an important qualifier.

I'm fairly sure that at least one Paradox game has been used in this way but I can't remember which.

[Arlanthe]

This may be funny on the surface but I just read this as a gimmick to make the school/class seem 'cool' for using games. Civ 3 is nowhere near in-depth enough to teach history in any form. After all, it's a TBS game, not a nation simulator.

It would be like using the main campaign of Rome: Total War to teach classics.

Actually, there is a mini-MMO that teaches Roman history and culture more realistically. (And an American Revolution educational RPG that lets you play a colonial citizen during the revolution and "explore" the times). And several "Learning Worlds" interactive MMOs for various history periods (I played the 1066 Book of Days mod).

This is an emerging field in education. There is a guy named KurtSquires who has researched efficacy of using Civ III to teach Geopolitical concepts (University of Wisconsin, Madison). They have an academic group working on the field. Nick Yee and another fellow (somethng Gee) are also names I know in Electronic Games and Education.

So does the University of Colombia; and MIT has a Games and Simulations/Education section in it's Communication/Education departments now (they have been using games in some of their classes already to teach concepts and such).

Futher, the ALA (American Library Association) has just wrapped up it's latest Games and Libraries conference on both gaming in libraries, as well as the surge in information literacy skills learned by players of complex games (i.e. MMOs) that have managed to spur self-directed information management more than any goading ever could.

Economists are using Eve Online to study concepts. I have seen statistics research papers from MMOs.

This field is going to blossom in the next ten years. Observe.