District Administration - May 2007 - (Page 46)

TECHNOLOGY Making History is just one of many games students play in K12 and college. reinforce concepts recently covered. “We’ve always said up front that the most important element in making a game eﬀective in the classroom is what the teacher does with it,” according to Nick deKanter, a founder and the vice president for business development at Muzzy Lane, which publishes Making History. “The software is only one piece of the process. The rest is integrating the game into the course’s learning objectives, the discussion during the game and how the teacher uses the lessons from the game afterward.” Muzzy Lane’s games are built to be used in classrooms. They deliver content appropriate for a high school–early college level student and come with a teacher’s guide. The game play is designed to ﬁt within several 50-minute classes. Other edugames provide reports that give the teacher data to evaluate student performance. Factors such as these are why many educators are happy to see the software and educational publishing community collaborating in the creation of new edugames. “In many ways, we’re still at the exploratory, awareness stage. There are not a lot of good games yet developed for schools, but they are emerging as people are becoming aware of the potential,” says Guerena. He and colleagues have created a Webcast about the idea to spread the word, including ideas from pioneers in the ﬁeld such as 46 May 2007 Clark Aldrich, author of Simulations and the Future of Learning. “There’s no subject matter that can’t be made into a game, it just depends on the kind of game. For example, in science, students could roam around a natural setting in a game, looking for RESOURCES Civilization www.civ3.com Epistemic Games www.epistemicgames.org Food Force www.food-force.com Making History www.muzzylane.com MIT’s Education Arcade www.educationarcade.org Orange County Department of Education Webcast www.vc.ocde.us/archive Rollercoaster Tycoon www.atari.com/ rollercoastertycoon Software & Information Industry Association Education Division www.siia.net/education The Sims www.thesims.ea.com WILL Interactive www.willinteractive.com Zoo Tycoon zootycoon.com evidence of natural phenomena and learning more about them,” deKanter says. “To me, language games will be big in the future. Why attach someone to headphones and a tape recorder when they can be immersed in a game to learn the language by interacting with virtual people?” Shaﬀer’s vision goes much further. He is working on several “epistemic games” that take a student deep into a speciﬁc slice of the real world. Urban Science, for instance, allows participants to work as urban planners to change the look and feel of Madison, Wis., including listening to virtual citizen concerns, taking into account environmental issues, redesigning the city and creating a 3-D model. A short version of the game might take two or three days, playing in three- or four-hour sessions; the full version would take nearly 60 hours over several weeks. “Much of the real world does not solve challenging problems in a 40minute chunk of time. To really take advantage of these kinds of games, we’re going to have to reorganize school,” he says. “But think about what the medical system would look like if everyone had experienced making choices of a doctor. And that’s just for starters.” Shaﬀer is quick to point out that, even with his longer games, school must oﬀer more than just time at the computer. And most edugame advocates aren’t setting out to change the way schools work; they just want to introduce smart games into the mix with the established tools of books, assemblies, videos and lectures. “We want to develop a set of guidelines for teachers and administrators to help them use games in the classroom, what selection of games is out there, what the research says, what are the best practices,” says Billings. “Games use what kids naturally want to do. They’re a perfect match for the classroom.” DA Carl Vogel is a freelance writer based in Chicago. District Administration http://www.civ3.com http://www.epistemicgames.org http://www.food-force.com http://www.muzzylane.com http://www.educationarcade.org http://www.vc.ocde.us/archive http://www.atari.com/rollercoastertycoon http://www.siia.net/education http://www.thesims.ea.com http://www.willinteractive.com http://zootycoon.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - May 2007

Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Inside the Law
Curriculum Update
Administrator Profile
District Profi le
Focal Points for Pre-K8 Math
Games Students Play
Healthy Choices
Tragic Lessons
Learning with Personal Media Players
New Products
Computer Literature
Problem Solution
Professional Opinion
Speaking Out
Online Edge
Calendar of Events
Research Corner

District Administration - May 2007