I am a teacher. Some of you may already have come across my extended ramblings on using SCIENCE for Big Games. This set of blog entries caught the attention of some people who wanted to know if there was a point in developing more educationally minded games. Not surprisingly, I said "yes", pretty enthusiastically! Now they are curious about what can be done, so I am drawing up some sample projects, hoping that there might be a way to make games that are fun on their own merits, but also help anyone learn all kinds of topics, from science to history to languages and so on.

If this is something you ever thought about, I would love to know, and hear any ideas you may be walking around with. I just wrote another blog entry on the topic, but from the basic idea of turning education into a game and to the practical side of it, there is a big gap to overcome. I don't want to end up with the horrible games I was exposed to on old IBM green-and-black screened bricks at school. The point is to make education something you can enjoy playing, rather than slave over.

If there are any teachers, tutors or home school parents out there, I would love to know. And I know there are a lot of people on these boards with higher academic backgrounds, if you're one of them and would like to talk about how your academic passions could be spread through games, I would also love to hear from you! And, of course, if you just have ideas, or are a student of some sort who would love for your studies to be gamified, please let me know!!

For now, I am looking at setting up a website with fairly simple games with high learning content, some of them entirely online and some actually meant to be printed out and plyed around a table (solitaire or competitively). But it's a big, weird topic, and I would love some discussions on it!

So... you game? (don't pun-slap me!)

I've posted this here before, but meet your "founding father".  This book was very influential on both Will Wright (Sim City, etc) and myself.  It is one of the first books ever written about game and simulation design.  Based on your post, I think you will find this very interesting.

https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Games-Simulations-Illustrated-Handbook/dp/0803929560

Embassy, you should go to the next Serious Play Conference. I went last year, and I found that a high percentage of the talks and sessions were about gamifying education. 

5 hours ago, Embassy of Time said:

If there are any teachers, tutors or home school parents out there

I teach, mostly about game design, production, and QA. To a small extent, I gamify those courses. I don't gamify all the courses I teach.

6 hours ago, Kavik Kang said:

I've posted this here before, but meet your "founding father".  This book was very influential on both Will Wright (Sim City, etc) and myself.  It is one of the first books ever written about game and simulation design.  Based on your post, I think you will find this very interesting.

https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Games-Simulations-Illustrated-Handbook/dp/0803929560

 

Cool, I will see if I can get a hold of a copy. There are some problems ordering from the US around here. Or can I buy a digital copy somewhere??

1 hour ago, Tom Sloper said:

Embassy, you should go to the next Serious Play Conference. I went last year, and I found that a high percentage of the talks and sessions were about gamifying education. 

I teach, mostly about game design, production, and QA. To a small extent, I gamify those courses. I don't gamify all the courses I teach.

I'd love to go, but my current budget doesn't allow trips to the US for a conference (I live in Denmark)

I would love to know about what you gamify, and how, if you feel like sharing your experiences?

Here is a link to a digital copy of the same book.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Designing_games_and_simulations.html?id=n9TtAAAAMAAJ

"The best games are educational." - The Avalon Hill Gang