Gaming in the classroom, gamification of education, learning apps; the landscape of educational games has certainly expanded in recent years. Wading into the waters of games in the classroom can be a daunting task for a teacher already drowning in a flooded curriculum. I recently read Mindshift: Guide to Digital Games and Learning which is a great primer for anyone interested in the possibilities and difficulties that games present a teacher looking to integrate them in a meaningful way. The guide has plenty of hyperlinks to practical resources that you can use immediately. As a complement, I want to share a curriculum guide I created that tries to utilize a game in an outcome-sensitive manner.
I created this ElectroCity Curriculum Guide with a partner for an assignment in a Curriculum Issues course I took last semester but I think it has plenty of practical applicability. I would love it if someone got some use from it. ElectroCity is the creation of an New Zealand power company that has the potential to address a number of issues related to (Canadian) public curricula. One of the benefits of the game is that it can be played out to completion in a short time, circumventing some of the time issues mentioned in the Mindshift guide. As a result, the game itself is less a lesson and more a jumping off point for a variety of discussions and activities.
Please comment if you have any ways to effectively use games in the classroom.