My earliest well-remembered memory of using a computer in school was when I played Oregon Trail. I can’t even remember how long ago that was, but sometime in elementary school. Only those students that finished their assignments were allowed to play this game. I remember loving it, and didn’t even consider it an educational activity at the time. Looking back, this shows how gamification is a really effective pedagogical tool and I would certainly like to delve into the theories behind gamification and how it could be used effectively in math and science education.
Funny, I remember playing it to, and thinking it was very cool. I somehow don’t think my own two children would agree. If you like gamification you will find 510 interesting. We did a lot of thinking/reflecting/learning around gaming and education. Have a great term. Sarah
I remember playing a little bit of Oregon Trail in elementary school but the biggest thing for me during elementary school in terms of an educational game was Sim City. For strange reasons, the teacher in charge of the computer labs was against students playing this game, despite its potential to teach kids the fundamentals behind how cities worked and were funded. The game was initially fairly popular on the school computers, but the teachers eventually wanted us to stop playing it, and thus uninstalled the game on many of the computers. Unknown to him however, there were a few computers that still had the game, and it became sort of an adventure to find the computers that still had the game on it, and to sneak in a few minutes of game time whenever possible.
Oregon Trail….elementary school memories. I remember loving that game. As Sarah mentioned above, 510 was fantastic for exploring gamification as an educational tool.
Yes I remember playing Oregon Trail too, being able to make decisions (selecting between options) was novel to interact with the game. That was already engaging enough, and to think how far we’ve come!
Andrew
Interesting how only the fast finishers were able to play these fun, interactive games. This was something I took note of this week, when some of my math students finished early and we played a game of math bingo. I know that the kids who were still working would benefit from the game but don’t always get to enjoy these extras. Your point made me consider the importance of gamification in conjunction with math class, and how access isn’t always tied to regular class time. Thanks!
I am at the age where I remember “Oregon Trail”…but I never used it. I was ten years out of high school and when it came out in 1990 (https://archive.org/details/msdos_Oregon_Trail_The_1990) I was still figuring what to do with my life.
Christopher
Yes it was a great game. I looked the other day and someone had recreated it on Minecraft Edu as an entire world. They even developed stores to trade your goods in and custom clothing for your character. We are thinking of trying it out in our class.