13.0568 games, learning and teaching

From: Humanist Discussion Group (willard@lists.village.virginia.edu)
Date: Mon May 01 2000 - 09:38:48 CUT

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                   Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 13, No. 568.
           Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   <http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
                  <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

             Date: Mon, 01 May 2000 10:29:03 +0100
             From: Ask the Philosopher <askthephilosof@yahoo.com>
             Subject: Re: 13.0554 come out to play?

    [Questions quoted below. --WM]

    Answers:
    1.Yes.
    2. The SIM line of games, i.e. Sim City, Sim Ant, Sim
    Civilization, Sim Family...and so on...

    Here is their web site:
    http://www.simcity.com/home.shtml

    However, I think the first question should be
    rephrased:
    how can the digital generation reach us? They know
    all about how to mine the internet for information
    resources, they quickly pick up computer
    languages--html, javascript, etc, etc.. and they have
    no fear of making and learning from mistakes.
    How can they get across to us linear, bit-by-bit
    learners and thinkers with our fear of making silly
    errors?

    Sheldon Richmond

    --- Humanist Discussion Group
    <willard@lists.village.virginia.edu> wrote:
    >
    > Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 13,
    > No. 554.
    > Centre for Computing in the Humanities,
    > King's College London
    >
    > <http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
    >
    > <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
    >
    >
    >
    > Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 08:13:07 +0100
    > From: Willard McCarty
    > <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk>
    > >
    > Some years ago a bright high school student talked
    > to me about getting a
    > recommendation for a scholarship. What he had to
    > show was a
    > dungeons-and-dragons game he had written. The aspect
    > of his work that
    > particularly interested me was the moral basis of
    > the game. Essentially
    > what he had done was to project his own situation,
    > as a young man in a
    > difficult world, into the format of a game. We had a
    > very memorable
    > conversation about modelling moral strength as if it
    > were some kind of
    > fuel, I brought up the story of Malcom X and so
    > forth.
    >
    > What happened to the fellow I have no idea (may he
    > be doing well!), but the
    > conversation did lead me to think about the use of
    > computer games as
    > teaching devices -- not just the sugar-coated pill
    > sort of thing, but more
    > essentially the application of mechanical modelling
    > to moral and
    > intellectual problems. Of course teaching games have
    > been considered
    > before, and good work has been done on computer --
    > e.g. very early, the
    > brilliant "Would-Be Gentleman", by Carolyn Lougee
    > (now Carolyn Lougee
    > Chappell), currently chair of History at Stanford,
    >
    <http://www.stanford.edu/dept/history/faculty/chappell/>.
    > As I recall
    > Would-Be Gentleman, however, it did not focus on the
    > modelling, rather
    > directly on the subject. What I have in mind is the
    > situation in which the
    > game would raise questions about how we know what we
    > think we know.
    >
    > Two questions, then:
    > (1) Can we reach the Sega-generation effectively
    > through games? If so, what
    > is to be considered?
    > (2) Who is doing this already and doing it well?
    >
    > Yours,
    > WM
    > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
    > - - - -
    > Dr. Willard McCarty, Senior Lecturer, King's College
    > London
    > voice: +44 (0)171 848 2784 fax: +44 (0)171 848 5081
    > <Willard.McCarty@kcl.ac.uk>
    > <http://ilex.cc.kcl.ac.uk/wlm/>
    > maui gratia
    >
    >
    >

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