Thursday, May 28, 2009

Help to bring about change

Now it's your time to help bring about change: bring good games to school! What is your recommendation?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wind power is an alternative energy resource available in Maine.

Anonymous said...

I think the class of life was the best game because it was eduactional and it told you what real life was like

Anonymous said...

We believe that the school board should pick either the 3RD World Farmer or the Cost of life games because it teaches kids strategies and ways of life. It also can be played again and again.

Anonymous said...

We would suggest that the third game be considered for the school wide game.

It seems to allow the student to excercise stragegy whereas the others did not.

Students did not feel like they learned anything from the Audbon game and the Hatian game.

I thought the Audobon game at least had a little information about the hazards that birds face and the different strenghts and weaknesses of different bird species

Anonymous said...

our suggestion to the school the class of the live it told u what real live is like and how live progress throught a period of time there were alot of options in discover what route u were going to take.this game had risks. this game was very fun to play over andf pver angain because if u lost it gave u another

Anonymous said...

Third World Farmer should be allowed in schools because it uses economics, it's a role playing game that send you into the life of a struggling farmer who tries to make a life for himself. This game is a game that can be played over and over because every time you play there is a different result and it's fun so anyone will play.

Anonymous said...

Replay Fanatic: Third World Farmer is the only one that's interesting. The others get boring quickly when replaying.

Game Scientist: I really like Cost of Life because it brought in lots of other factors that make a difference in the game. It does expose students to different cultures with a real-life simulation of a third-world culture. It could be used for many different classes -- economics, math, etc.

Thrill-seeker: In our group, there was a tie between Migratio and Third-World Farmer. I think TWF was not thrilling, but you can't stop playing. The migration game might be more exciting for kids because you have to click quickly and react fast. It's a fast-paced game.

Challenge Evaluator: Cost of Life is like Oregon Trail plus Sim City. It's passive. Migration game requires good hand-eye coordination. Didn't get to play Third-World Farmer, but it seems similar to Cost of Life.

Overall, we discovered that once somebody started playing Third-World Farmer, they kept playing it.

Cost of Life can be pretty depressing.

Anonymous said...

Group 3 came to a quick concensus with 3rd World Farmer. We chose this because the excitement factor was higher than the other two. The educational opportunities abound with cost of living, food security as an issue, politics and democracy, change of rate for economics, yeild/risk... There are lots of replay options and variables. It was the most challenging as far as decision making and the impact of each purchase.

Elizabeth Bianchi said...

We felt that Third World Farmer was the best game based on the four criteria. We found ourselves spending time playing the game and enjoying playing the game, while with the other games we found them easy, boring, or non-repeatable. This game, we felt, better portrayed what life might be like in a third world, created an opportunity for discussion about the disasters that happened, and was something that we felt was enjoyable enough to play.

Robert said...

# 2 Group

Games for Change
• Replay- not very engaging no control
• Mental challenge not good
• Scientist/ Educational- good expose to different cultures, diseases –discussion
• Complex-challenge more about setting priorities and decision making less about affecting true change
• Thrill Seeking- not at all more like a slot machine level of seeking
Mission Migration
• Education a lot information-elementary to middle school
• Lower level high
• Complex-came more with hand eye and low thought process
• Thrill seeking- highest of the three because of the hands on and navigation
• Replay-after several replays to learn the game it became boring
Third World Farmer-
• Education- dealt with physical and environmental issues economics and a lot of life skills and social studies topics
• Complex- challenge was very high, high thinking, can discouraged but if the challenge is met it is high reward.
• Thrill seeker- random and not much thrill involved…
• Replay- A lot of choices and avenues of challenge including strategies to succeed very rewarding if done over and over

Laura Johns said...

Third World Farmer is a good program to start students thinking about basic subsitance choice, the risks involved and decision making. The game presents situations that countries deal with every day. Examples are droughts, crop failures, civil wars, poaching, poor medical facilities.
We would recommend this program because it is fun every time you play, challenging, gives immediate feedback, and is a great stepping stone to the more advanced game, Cost of Life. We would recommend that next year this additional game to the curriculum as it has an increased hierarchy of choices.