Curmudgeon at large

My intent was to discuss the game I had found on icivics.org but the article from Squire has been consuming my thoughts. I had resolved myself to not discuss age in this class, people get so turned-off with boorish people who spout off about ‘I’ve been here or I’ve done that’ and I truly do not want to bore you, but the article brings up two things which I have some real world knowledge of, urban planning and history. On page 25 the first paragraph under the heading Entertainment Games Used for Learning. I would like to draw your attention to the final sentence of the paragraph. “Although teachers around the country use or have used Sim City, Civilization, and Rollercoaster Tycoon in urban planning, world history, or physics classes, there has been little academic study of how learning occurs through such programs or how conceptions of history or urban planning change as they are represented through digital media.” I have been an Urban Planner for 25 years, a little less than half of my life. I will concede without reservation that these kinds of games introduce some concepts of Urban Planning, and with more than a passing interest in history, (my first degree is in Historic Preservation), I will also concede that games have the potential to bring history to the student in far more interesting ways than any textbook can and especially to students who can learn better through the mediums that games provide. But there is something else that has been brought up, in the readings and in class and that is the feeling that for the most part games should be treated as supplements to learning. My concern is that by playing these games are students supplanting real world experiences with games and believing that they have mastered the topic? In my most recent posting as an Urban Planner for a wealthier urban county north of Atlanta my experience was that I have never seen these simulations used in the actual practice of planning. Design Charettes ask participants to analyze the myriad of design issues, from scale and massing of buildings to open space and viewsheds. Do these games do that? Property developers are cost conscious and barely submit for review adequate project renderings, so they are not using simulations out of budgetary constraints. So, do these simulations teach or are they only supplements that only scratch the surface? The point I want to make that, as an educator, I will scrupulously examine any game, long or short form, for usefulness within the lesson plan, the teaching standards and the time constraints of 40 minute classrooms. What is the game actually teaching, how do I conclude if learning of appropriate content is taking place? What shortcomings in knowledge does the game have? Is there a slant to the game, that is does the developer of the game and the funding source have an agenda and will participation in their ideological system be harmful to my students? As the article points out this “Shift toward a culture of simulation, whereby digital technologies make it possible to construct, investigate and interrogate hypothetical worlds that are increasingly a part of how we work and play” is undoubtedly true, I want to be certain that the world that is constructed in these games and the ideas that students are asked to investigate and question in these hypothetical worlds serve the purposes of truth in education.