Now we termed the phrase edugame when trying to decided which ‘games’ were appropriate for the DMGC students. First person shooters (FPS), tend to mean guns, blood and gore are for good reason, sensitive subjects within education. However, discount the guns and add a pinch of sexual tension, we get Shakespeare and Chaucer.
Seriously now, we gave the issue of FPS real consideration. We decided to ignore all modern / realistic FPS but did accept paintball and period shooters with historical context. This was supported by a letter to parents outlining that some games did have a ‘mature’ rating. More recently we have introduced the students to Real Time Strategy games in which the action is played out continuously without breaks, games such as Savage and Swine.
The spin off is we have used more flashbased edugames as lesson starters and as entire lessons. Flash edugames such as Lighbot, The Impossible Quiz and Fantastic Contraption. Today, my colleague Andy created a very quick and simple start menu, linked to our classroom management system. Two clicks and I change reward students with edugaming fun. Staying with the theme, I added some curriculum edugames from a article I read today to my Delicious account (and I know have 40 tagged edugame recommendations), stop disasters game simsweatshop and a referral robomind. Enjoy your learning. Enjoy watching the students learn!