Although I grew up with both a computer …
Although I grew up with both a computer and nintendo I have never really taken to gaming and now would still rather learn through reading or interacting socially. For myself as a learning I find these more beneficial and associate gaming with leisure and it does not engage me as a learner as much as I get the sense it has some of you after reading all the previous posts.
However, there was on computer game I can vividly recall that I did love as a child and I believe had a significant impact on who I am today (so I guess I shouldn’t count out gaming all that much considering it had such a great affect on me). As a child I was always fascinated by foreign countries, different geographical and cultural landscapes and travel. When I was around 8 or 9 I got the computer game “Where In the World Is Carmen San Diego?” I was glued to this game. In this game there is a woman who is a world-famous thief and you are international detective and must use clues to follow her to different countries of the world and arrest her various partners in crime. Along with the game came a book that had a map and listed countries and all sorts of information about each country. I learned all about different countries, their currency, where they were on a map, the language of the country. I truly believe this spawned my love and curiousities throughout my youth for travel and culture. Now the game has become a TV show and there is an interactive online version I found when I was looking it up.
This game is the only one that I can say really had a significant impact on my learning as a child, at least that I am conciously aware of. Another I can remember using but not the name game we used in school with these keyboard-like stand-alone machines, but if I remember correctly I didn’t enjoy it and did it because I had to.
Here is the version I had on my computer as a child.
Where in the World is Carmen San Diego
To add to this I just remembered one more game that contributed to my game-based learning as when I was younger. Although this game didn’t engage me nearly as much as the one previously mentioned.
Midnight Rescue
A game that developed reading, writing and critical thinking skills of Grade 3-5 students. Based in a school the character (another detective. I must have wanted to be a detective when I grew up.) must take pictures of evil robots and answer questions in clues in order to solve the mystery of which robot the villian is in before midnight or the school will disappear.
Posted in: Week 05: Game-Based Learning
themusicwoman 12:44 pm on October 5, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Dear Jay,
Although I remember the game, I have to admit I didn’t play it much and I appreciate your comment about not being a game based learner as much as a book/written word and social learner. This unit has made me think more about me as a learner, too. I tend to game for fun and relaxation but I think of how my child in grade 1 uses games to learn spelling right now on the computer.
So, a detective eh?
bcourey 3:30 pm on October 5, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I too remember that game Jay…thanks for the reminder. I remember thinking that my kids would really enjoy it and I would sneak in some geography education on them…didn’t work – they really didn’t enjoy the game as it lacked the “action” they preferred.
ifeoma 3:36 pm on October 5, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jay,
Reading your post I can already see that the “Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?” is a game that would encourage the development of problem solving skills in addition to learning geography. I can also relate to associating gaming with leisurey, my take of it is that the skills it teaches are embedded and so are not apparent and it is just as well, because it is a way to make learning informal and fun in order to attract someone who does not like to learn in the usual formal way,
jenaca 3:38 am on October 6, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hey Jay, I also remember playing “Where in the world is Carmen San Diego”. I agree with your post that I play games for the fun of it and don’t necessarily combined learning and games. However, there are some great games that do enhance learning, especially for young children.