Resident Evil: Good
I recently started playing Resident Evil 4.
I didn’t really play video games that much growing up. I never owned an Atari or Nintendo, so my opportunities for playing were always limited to friends’ systems. And since I wasn’t practiced at the games, the kids who had the games mastered them before I even had a chance to play. I played a bit of Spyhunter as a kid. Some Mortal Kombat in college. Some Fifa Gold on Sega Genesis. Some Goldeneye at a friend’s house.
It seemed like an appropriate time to start playing a game. Lots of folks around here spend time (both recreational and professional time) on games. I figured I would learn a bunch of stuff related to my work but not too related to my work. Which makes gaming pretty much the perfect procrastination.
University of Play
Shaffer, D. W. (2008). University of Play. In Press, OECD.
Learning in the digital age
Shaffer, D. W. (2008). Learning in the digital age. Wisconsin People and Ideas, 54(2), 51-55.
http://epistemicgames.org/cv/papers/Wisconsin People and Ideas.pdf
Education in the Digital Age
Shaffer, D. W. (2008). Education in the digital age. Digital Kompetanse, 1(3), 37-50.
http://epistemicgames.org/cv/papers/Shaffer_Digital Kompetanse 1-2008.pdf
Fantasy congress
Another game that one could see making its way into the classroom, this time a riff on fantasy sports. As one blogger explains:
It’s no secret that fantasy sports has become a huge industry. From what started as a fun diversion for some baseball fans a few decades ago, to one of the most popular hobbies for sports fans (and lucrative businesses for providers) around the world for just about any sport, it’s become incredibly common. However, why stop at sports? Apparently some college students have decided to extend it to another realm, and have created “Fantasy Congress” to let political buffs draft their favorite politicians and score points based on the progress of legislation they propose (no word on how many points you get if your politician is forced to resign in disgrace).
As one of the game’s creators suggests in a NY Times article (free registration required):
“Everyone knows about football, but more people need to know about Congress,” Mr. Lee said. “If as many people knew about Congress as knew about football, baseball and basketball, we’d all be more educated.”
