4 ms·

How student-designed video games made me rethink how I teach history

11 points by sohkamyung 5y ago

danbolt 5y ago
This was an interesting read! Video games tend to be known as entertainment products, but here we see the creation and evaluation of one as an educational goal. I feel like this pushes on the boundaries of the medium in an interesting way.
otabdeveloper4 5y ago
"Edutainment" was bunk 25 years ago and it's still bunk now. Educating yourself is hard work, and there's no way around that.
- rhaps0dy 5y ago
  By far the people who were most educated are the student developers themselves: > Ultimately, the team learned more about samurai life and early modern Japan than any group of students I had worked with across a single semester. They read a dizzying array of books and articles while working and reworking the overall design, dialogue and artwork. Making a game is hard work. It can also provide the motivation to do even more work, eg of the reading kind.
- foxyv 5y ago
  Educating others is hard work too. Most edutainment stuff was lazy, poorly designed shovelware. Usually a flash card program with some extra graphics and sounds. Some, on the other hand were excellent. I remember being fascinated with a lot of the games back in the 90s. Gazillionaire, Oregon Trail, Amazon Trail, Africa Trail, Simcity, Carmen Sandiego, and all the Learning Company games were amazingly educational and entertaining. They just weren't profitable.
- danbolt 5y ago
  I think what's interesting about this approach is that the act of creating the game is the educational work, rather than consuming the product.
Tarsul 5y ago
I recently read the manga about Hitler's life from Shigeru Mizuki and noticed I learnt more about the man and how he came to be than in history classes in school (and I say this as a German where WW2 was basically half of all history classes - I wasn't the best student, though). So there certainly, at least for lower levels, is a lot of improvements possible regarding the learning environment, be it through video games, comics etc.

11 points by sohkamyung 5y ago

This was an interesting read! Video games tend to be known as entertainment products, but here we see the creation and evaluation of one as an educational goal. I feel like this pushes on the boundaries of the medium in an interesting way.

otabdeveloper4 5y ago

"Edutainment" was bunk 25 years ago and it's still bunk now. Educating yourself is hard work, and there's no way around that.

rhaps0dy 5y ago
By far the people who were most educated are the student developers themselves: > Ultimately, the team learned more about samurai life and early modern Japan than any group of students I had worked with across a single semester. They read a dizzying array of books and articles while working and reworking the overall design, dialogue and artwork. Making a game is hard work. It can also provide the motivation to do even more work, eg of the reading kind.
foxyv 5y ago
Educating others is hard work too. Most edutainment stuff was lazy, poorly designed shovelware. Usually a flash card program with some extra graphics and sounds. Some, on the other hand were excellent. I remember being fascinated with a lot of the games back in the 90s. Gazillionaire, Oregon Trail, Amazon Trail, Africa Trail, Simcity, Carmen Sandiego, and all the Learning Company games were amazingly educational and entertaining. They just weren't profitable.
danbolt 5y ago
I think what's interesting about this approach is that the act of creating the game is the educational work, rather than consuming the product.

Tarsul 5y ago

I recently read the manga about Hitler's life from Shigeru Mizuki and noticed I learnt more about the man and how he came to be than in history classes in school (and I say this as a German where WW2 was basically half of all history classes - I wasn't the best student, though). So there certainly, at least for lower levels, is a lot of improvements possible regarding the learning environment, be it through video games, comics etc.