Yeah, this is most definitely a Game Design topic. Can someone move it? I certainly hope it won''t be deleted just because it belongs in the next forum up.
Anyway, I''m struggling with ideas on how to develop truly educational games. I''m not talking about Edutainment, which are just entertaining products that chaotically present educational facts, but games that actually TEACH structured concepts.
There are a few people out there (especially at various universities) who are researching this difficult topic, but I''m not satisfied with the results so far. I''m convinced there has to be a better way than just presenting practice questions and rewarding the player for answering them correctly.
Ideas I''ve had range from placing player characters in a simulated historical setting, to developing an action-adventure or RPG that uses math or science to manipulate reality in a fantasy world, much the same way "magic" and "psionics" are contrived elements of many fantasy realities. I''m not just talking about making another Math Blaster, either.. like I said, these games need to provide players/students with a real understanding of the academic concepts covered by the product.
Probably the most difficult issue is the fact that the product has to accurately and comprehensively explain an academic principle, while still being FUN.
Any ideas on this?
Brian Lacy
Smoking Monkey Studios
Comments? Questions? Curious?
brian@smoking-monkey.org
"I create. Therefore I am."
Educational aspect in games?
It seems eaiser to use more toy like games. Like the Sim- games. Or different simluation without a paticular goal. Like create your own solar system, where gravitational forces would be realisticaly simlulated, and students could throw meteors at planets, and watch the side effects. So it would be educational but students would enjoy it because the would compete (I built a system with a planet that experiences 50 eclipses a day!).
Or archatecture(sp?) simulations where students could experament with different materials and designs to construct the strongest bridge. Things like tornados, floods, and extreme heat and cold could be simulated to test it.
I find it harder to think of a standard games (fps, rpg, rts, adventure, etc) that could be really educational. A historical adventure would be cool. Like have large portions of Rome with scripted characters, and the player/student could wander around and watch how life in Rome actually was, rather than just hearing the normal explanation of government, military, and economics.
Another idea would be multiplayer games. Like giving students control of different countries and demostrate how foreign relations work. Each country being unuiqe and having unuiqe problems that exist when the student takes control of it.
I agree that this could be an absolutely great way to teach. My only experience involving educational computer programs was some dumbed down lecture on a CD that I had to sit through in biology. It wasn''t aawful, but it there was extremely little interactivity, and these abnoxious biologists would materialize (standing on a lung or something) to further clairify things.
Thats about all I could come up with in the limited time I have when my teacher isnt looking at my screen. =)
Phriction
Or archatecture(sp?) simulations where students could experament with different materials and designs to construct the strongest bridge. Things like tornados, floods, and extreme heat and cold could be simulated to test it.
I find it harder to think of a standard games (fps, rpg, rts, adventure, etc) that could be really educational. A historical adventure would be cool. Like have large portions of Rome with scripted characters, and the player/student could wander around and watch how life in Rome actually was, rather than just hearing the normal explanation of government, military, and economics.
Another idea would be multiplayer games. Like giving students control of different countries and demostrate how foreign relations work. Each country being unuiqe and having unuiqe problems that exist when the student takes control of it.
I agree that this could be an absolutely great way to teach. My only experience involving educational computer programs was some dumbed down lecture on a CD that I had to sit through in biology. It wasn''t aawful, but it there was extremely little interactivity, and these abnoxious biologists would materialize (standing on a lung or something) to further clairify things.
Thats about all I could come up with in the limited time I have when my teacher isnt looking at my screen. =)
Phriction
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