At the end of yesterdays EDUC 504 class Rory
asked the question "how can we revise a high school curriculum around
video gaming?" After first hearing
the question I really didn't have any initial thoughts or opinions regarding
the subject matter, but after having some time to think it over I
believe I have developed a clear position.
Growing up in middle school and high school I always used to play the game "Age
of Empire" PC games. "Age of
Empires" is a series of PC games that allows players to cultivate their
own civilization in real time strategy fashion, similar to the way SIMS does. This game was so cool to me growing up because
it allowed me to express my interest in the subject of history all while
playing video games, which is something I loved.
As crazy as it is, I feel that "Age of Empires" really helped
further grow my passion and intellectual curiosity for history. The game allowed me to create my own civilization
and decide what buildings, people, and direction to take my land. I got to build houses, build farms, raise armies, invest in technology, invest in resources, manage infrastructure,
create alliances, and much more. Furthermore,
each decision a player makes can drastically effect the direction and outcome
of your civilization.
I honestly believe a real time
strategy game like "Age of Empires" could be used abundantly
throughout a history or anthropology class during a semester. The game was created in such a way that I
believe it could be really beneficial to use in history classes helping
students further understand the importance of history and how it relates to
them. "Age of Empires" in my opinion
does a remarkable job of making history come alive to its players. I also think the game is really beneficial
because of its ability to cross into other disciplines and encourage students
to problem solve. Moreover, the game is
very user friendly and easy to understand and master. The game is very similar to the SIMS in that
you control everything that happens, and the direction and flow of the
game. "Age of Empires" could
be easily aligned into the history classes daily lessons. For example, if one week my class is
discussing WWII, then "Age of Empires" can be utilized as
students execute their own military strategies, with the same weapons and
geography of that of WWII. Students can
play countless simulations of real time battles where they make numerous decisions
that affect the outcome of the civilization.
The game also provides students with a great general understanding of
practical economics that they can then apply to a more vast understanding of
history. All in all I believe Age of
Empires would be a great game for developing students basic understanding of
history, and how it is shaped based on various decisions and strategies. I plan on using the game a lot in my future history classes.
Hey, Andrew. I've been out of gaming for a while, so this post was really helpful. I checked out some of the information for Age of Empires I, II, and III, which all seem, at first glance, as if they could be incorporated into a World History class and/or, perhaps, a U.S. History class (at least III).
ReplyDeleteBut, I have a few questions: What would the cost factor be for students and/or for the school? When would students play? Would they compare their results with historical happenings? What lessons could they learn from this beyond what you have already mentioned beyond "military strategies" and "practical economics"? Understanding history would seem like a given, but would this be a way of introducing counterfactuals that could get students to consider not only how history could have been different but also how they might think about how they might shape future history as local and global citizens?
Again, thanks for the great idea!
No no no no no. You cannot downgrade AoE to being compared to Sims! It's more like Starcraft and Warcraft, Real-Time Strategy. If you like AoE you should take a look into the Civilization series. This walks you through all the eras and allows you to control one civilization. It takes into account alliances and more. I'm unsure of where AoE is but I know Civ 5 just came out recently and has received good reviews.
ReplyDeleteI think that you're off to a great start in terms of your thinking about how you might usefully employ a game like Age of Empires in your teaching. I think that part of our task as teachers (and game players) is to continue to unpack what we mean when we say that AofE "does a remarkable job of making history come alive," so that we can hone our arguments for the educational value of an experience like this (and I use educational in a broader sense than just related to history). It was great to read that you thought that AofE deepened your interest in history...that's a great tribute to a well-designed game. As you talk about why this was so, you do a lot of the work that I'm encouraging. AofE helped make history come alive for you because you got to do a lot of things...build houses, raise armies, etc....what was that experience like? What were the intellectual aspects of the experience? Did you feel that seeing the consequences of certain decisions you made had value? If so, why? How did that kind of experience help make history come alive? Keep working on the challenge of pulling that experience apart and naming as many of its components as you can, and forming your arguments advocating for the value of the experience...
ReplyDelete