TLT470 - TQ#3

This week we were tasked with trying simulation games to evaluate their abilities to be effective learning tools. I decided to choose Oregon Trail, SimCity Classic and FreeCiv. After spending several hours working with these games, I discovered that although all promote critical thinking and construcive learning, the process to integrate these successfully into the classroom is quite different.

Oregon Trail

Oregon Trail is a game of decision making and strategy. The goal of the game is quite obvious from the beginning; make your way to Oregon to settle. Although the game contains archaic graphics, it still teaches the player timeless skills. The survival of the fittest mentality of the game forces the player to make choices and deal with the repercussions of those decisions. I recall at one point in the game, I came to a river that was about 6 feet deep, I attempted to float across the river in the wagon. The wagon sank, one of my characters drowned, and rations of both food and clothing were lost. One quickly learns to analyze the situation a bit closer the next time a river is reached. This game would integrate well in a classroom. The time to finish should not be complicated to incorporate into a lesson plan, and the collaboration of ideas between the students could be quite beneficial.

In an article written by J. P. Gee called "What would the state of the art instructional video look like?", he said "Something very interesting happens when one treats knowledge first and foremost as activity and experience, not as facts and information -- the facts come to life." I would have to agree that this kind of learning is not something that one can easily gather by sitting in a classroom reading a word problem, or answering a multiple choice question. There is not a single answer to the problem, but many answers with many outcomes. These higher order thinking skills are a key element of technology use that make it an effective learning tool.

SimCity Classic

SimCity classic is a fairly complex game, but it has the ability to work well in most educational environments. The object of the game is to build a city with a fixed budget and a list self sustaining elements of a city. I liked this game best because it provides a tutorial for the player and gives them information about how to begin building a city. There is an indicator in the upper right corner of the screen with 3 colored bars. These bars represent different aspects of the city. They rise and fall as the needs change. My initial attempt at this game bordered on pathetic. I made the decision to do some research online and found communities of people devoted to sharing ideas and perspectives on how to approach the game. My second attempt improved significantly as shown in the screen shot above. I took the advice from the various forums, and applied some of my own ideas. In order to apply this effectively to teach students, it would probably be best to devote some classroom time to begin building cities, and then let the students go off on their own to work with others online, as well as their classmates to continue development. After a decided amount of time has passed, it would be useful to reconvene and discuss everyone's experiences and talk about what was learned throughout the process.

FreeCiv

This open source version of the game Civilization is an extremely complex strategy game. The player starts out with the beginning phases of civilization, and needs to move through land to discover and learn how to do everything that exists in modern times. The instructions for this game were also overly complex. I probably spent the most time on this game, and made the least progress in the game. Although there is an immense amount of content that can be learned from the game, the time required may make this game less than optimal to incorporate into a classroom. Alternatively, this could be beneficial as a voluntary special project, for those students that may take interest in this type of game.