Legsim

After reading about epistemic games, a colleague at the University of Washington wrote me about LegSim:

I don’t know if you are aware of LegSim (www.legsim.org)? It’s a virtual legislature that students organize and operate themselves. It has proven to be very popular at the college level, and we are now bringing it into high schools. I’ve found that high school teachers are eager for opportunities to engage students – if those opportunities reflect the curriculum constraints they face. At least those we have presented to do have some flexibility in terms of how they covered the required materials, and they get really excited when they see new ways to reach their students.

For those who read about The Debating Game in How Computer Games Help Children Learn and are interested in simulations and games in history class, this is worth a further look.

My general take on simulations of this kind are that they are even more effective as learning opportunities if they recreate the way people learn to become legislators rather than recreate what it means to be legislators. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that simulations like these are rich opportunites for teachers to create and use games for learning in their classrooms.