8 Responses to “Online games OK? Students need this one!”

1. Barb Says:
   April 23rd, 2010 at 2:53 pm

   Why are students learning about money at school? Why aren’t parents teaching them?

2. Bev Says:
   April 23rd, 2010 at 4:11 pm

   Parents! Do your job!

   Take the pressure and burden off society and teach your kids fiscal responsibility; teach them how to cook and clean; teach them how to dress, speak, and act appropriately in a public.
   The responsiblity of raising your child with basic life skills does not belong in the public schools.
   Basic life skills belong in the home.

   I have a suggestion: watch the movie Idiocracy. Even though it is not the best movie ever made, it certainly is a sign of our times.

3. Jonathan Says:
   April 23rd, 2010 at 5:01 pm

   Because many parent don’t know how to live financially responsible lives!

4. Cole Says:
   April 26th, 2010 at 8:21 pm

   “Take the pressure and burden off society and teach your kids fiscal responsibility; teach them how to cook and clean; teach them how to dress, speak, and act appropriately in a public.
   The responsiblity of raising your child with basic life skills does not belong in the public schools.
   Basic life skills belong in the home.”

   I agree, but maybe this should be a class in school. If we all want our kids to have some degree of class and articulation, maybe this kind of training should be standard curriculum.

5. Tony Says:
   April 27th, 2010 at 3:15 am

   I’m all for computer games as a way of teaching. Children, and adults, learn through play.

   Unfortunately, many of these educational games are just dull. They are so intent on “giving you the information” that they are heavy handed, and don’t have good gameplay that keeps you interested.

   I recently played through “Assassins Creed 2″ where you, well, go around killing people while trying to unravel a supernatural mystery. Fairly standard (if fun) action game. What makes it really stand out is that it is set during the Renaissance in Italy. You have fistfights in Florence, leap canals in Venice, and sneak into the Vatican in Rome. And there is care and attention to detail in those locations. While in Venice, I walked into an area, thought “This looks familiar. I recognize that tower. Oh, this must be St Marco’s square. So the cathedral will be over there. Yes, there it is. And down there will be the Doge’s palace. Yes, there it is. And that’s the grand canal.” – I then walked around the corner, wanting to have a look at the prison that is attached to the palace. No prison. I was a little disappointed to find there were limits to the detail the designers had put in. And then I remembered – the prison was a much later addition, and wouldn’t have existed at that time. For a computer game, that’s an amazing level of detail. But it didn’t end there. You could find art stores and buy paintings for your manor house. Of course, the paintings were all famous pieces which you could go to your manor and look at. More importantly, every time you arrived at a “new location” it would pop up a little message about the location name, and you could hit a key to get text about it. It was fascinating to read about all these quirky locations or bits of history. Same with the characters you’d meet – you could read information about the real life history we have about that person.

   I bought that game because I am quite interested in medieval/renaissance history, especially Renaissance Italian history. I was expecting to play a fun game of assassinations set in an era that I was quite interested in. I didn’t expect to actually learn a lot from the game itself – that was a very welcome surprise.

   But… the designers built a good, solid, fun game first. And THEN added the educational content. It doesn’t work when you do it the other way around.

   In my ideal world, it would be possible to go to the game shop and pick up a game marked as “year 10 history curriculum” which will be both fun to play, but also lead me through “discovering” the content that I’ll need to learn that year. It will never replace a text book, and I don’t think it should. It *might* replace my “free time” activities that I might otherwise be playing and not learning, though. And it might make me more interested about the topics, and more eager to learn in the upcoming classes.

   And not just games, books too. If I have to learn about the American Civil War, give me a well written historical fiction set in that time period. Have some exciting challenges to the protagonist that are unique to the era.

   Why shouldn’t learning and play overlap more?

6. TonyR Says:
   April 30th, 2010 at 2:34 pm

   Values can not be taught in a game, or in a class. Values are learned through example and experience. Responsibility, or lack of responsibility, is a result of values.

7. Anne Says:
   April 30th, 2010 at 4:47 pm

   I find it ironic that western society has espoused an economic model which depends entirely on excessive consumption. In fact, the well-being of “The Economy” is judged by consumer confidence, i.e. the willingness of consumers (which means the general population) to spend money. So, on the one hand we promote a climate encouraging excessive spending without fiscal responsibility – need I bring up the sub-prime crisis? – on the other hand we want our kids to exercise financial responsibility. We as parents in general, are certtainly leading by excellent example. Perhaps society at large needs to reevaluate its obsession with consumption as an economic tool.

8. TonyR Says:
   April 30th, 2010 at 6:00 pm

   Anne, you might want to expand on that statement. Without consumption, there is no economy, or even life.

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