Social Studies games - your experiences
Gaming has long been a part of social studies with simulations, role-playing, board games, and other turn-based games playing a central part in many social studies classrooms. Countless teachers have used off the shelf games or even invented games for their students. With the rise of personal computing in the 1980s, games took on a new life in social studies classrooms. Games such as Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen San Diego became staples of many social studies classrooms.

Given our first two readings on gaming (below) how do you think games can be incorporated into social studies. Think broadly and take into account you personal experiences as a learner and a teacher. How do you think games can be used effectively in social studies? What are some limitations? What are some games you have played (as a student or teacher) in school social studies and what are some game you have not played but would like to?

The readings for this response are,

1.    Paper, S. (1998). "Does easy do it? Children, games and learning." Game developer magazine, June, 1998. Retrieved July 10, 2007, http://www.papert.org/articles/Doeseasydoit.html

2.    Gee, J. P. (2005). The Classroom of Popular Culture: What video games can teach us about making students want to learn. Retrieved July 10, 2007,  http://www.edletter.org/current/gee.shtml  


For more info see

Marsh, C. J. (1981). Simulation Games and the Social Studies Teacher. Theory Into Practice, 20(3), 187-193.

Posted by jklee ( Oct 03 2007, 11:09:38 AM EDT ) Permalink Comments [14]