“Will computers change the way we learn? We answer “yes”. Video
games create new social and cultural worlds, worlds that help people
learn by integrating thinking, social interaction, and technology, all
in the service of doing things they care about … virtual worlds are
powerful contexts for learning. “ — Schaffer, Squire, Halverson, Gee
(2004)
A few years ago, I wrote Digital Storytelling Finds Its Place in the Classroom. In addition to an update to that article, I'd like to soon write an article along the lines of Video Games Find Their Place in the Classroom. While my digital storytelling work in my classroom this year has been less than what I hoped for, a recent exploration of Sid Meier's popular Civilization III computer game has reinforced some long held beliefs about the educational merit of games, both computer and traditional board games. I was expected to cover ancient civilizations in my curriculum and wanted to take advantage of Kurt Squire's research and development of a curriculum using Civ III.
I can't say what I've done so far has been carefully planned, but sometimes you find resources to enhance your teaching and they don't have to follow carefully constructed lesson plans. Even though Squire's work details specific lessons to follow, it's still possible for students to benefit from Civ III by playing a few times or even observing a small group playing. This has been the scenario that's played out in my classroom over the last month. Even though I could have secured multiple copies of the game for the five computers in my classroom at a whopping cost of $5 per game (buy it here), school policy prevented me from installing it. So, I found a Mac version and we've been using it on the G4 station, also in the classroom, that's free of installation restrictions. The dual flat planel monitors have made a big difference, facilitating small group use of the game and comments such as, "Mr. Banaszewski. I have a theory that if you send a warrior out to explore that it will lead to you getting more resources from a neighboring civilization. It's just a theory. I haven't tested it out yet." This comment came from a student who has aggresively resisted all verbal and print instruction during the quarter.
What I like about Civ III is how it enables a level of critical thinking that isn't so easy to attain during regular class discussions. In Civ III, students see the complex cause and effect relationships of how civilizations expand because of how they're manipulating the objects in the environment, sort of like how some students finally understand the concept of base ten in mathematics when they use cuisenaire rods and cubes that they can manipulate to model 1, 10, 100, and 1000.
