Edutopia – Matthew Farber
“A decade ago, iCivics, which now has about 20 free games on its platform, became my gateway to game-based learning. When I taught social studies to middle school kids, I observed their engagement with content that might otherwise be boring to 12- and 13-year-olds. For instance, to help students learn about the Bill of Rights, I had them play Do I Have a Right?, a game where players learn experientially by running a civil rights law firm. That early experience showed me the power of games as a tool for boosting engagement, but I’d like to suggest a paradigm change on why we need to teach with games, beyond meeting kids where they are. After all, we didn’t toss out books when television came along, and we still teach using novels even though there are film adaptations—new technologies don’t totally displace old ones.” (more)