Computer Games in the Classroom

                 Do educational computer games still exist? I remember in the third grade I was in a classroom that had its own computer. Once we finished with our work, we were permitted to play on the computer under the condition that we played an educational game. Some of my favorites were: Reader Rabbit, Super Solvers: Gizmos and Gadgets, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.  

                Now that I think about, I haven’t seen an educational game since I graduated grammar school.  Even in my ninth grade computer class, the closest thing I saw to an educational game was a bland how-to-type program that was nowhere near as exciting as the Rollertyping software used at my grammar school. 

                While I haven’t seen any games specifically labeled as educational since my grammar school days, I have seen numerous articles discussing video games in the classroom ranging from Wii Sports in Gym class to SimCity in Sociology. Perhaps video games could be valuable in the English classroom as well.  If SimCity can be used to test problem-solving skills, maybe The Sims 3 (or 2) could be used in an exercise on characterization or story-telling. With The Sims, students can create a character (or a household of characters) to control their daily life/lives. In The Sims 3, these characters called Sims can also be customized to have specific personality traits, likes, dislikes, and lifelong goals. This game could be used as a tool for students to re-create characters from novels and try to re-enact their story, or create their own original characters and create their own story in a visual, interactive manner. This exercise would be a fun way for students to explore characters and stories with the use of a popular game that would keep them engaged in the topic.