I have practically made a career out of making fun of gamers. I used to work at Barnes & Noble, where we had a gaming section (which, of course, I lumped in with Sci Fi folks). There was a profile of gamers who would come in the store – as soon as they walked in, you knew which section they wanted. And they didn’t ask for help – they just made a beeline to the area where their Dungeons and Dragons/Magic: The Gathering books were. I didn’t pretend to know anything about the games (I still don’t), but the guys were self-sufficient.
Now, we have WoW (World of Warcraft), among many, many other role-playing based games. And we know one thing for sure – some kids spend an awful lot of time playing these games.
Games are not just for 40 year olds who live in their mom’s basement. This article from Edutopia helps to bring to light what we can do to create games that are enticing to young people, while meeting curriculum and skills. Pretty cool – looks like a win-win to me.
Have you used gaming or games in your classroom? How has it worked for you?