http://www.digra.org/dl/db/05150.28025

http://www.timrylands.com/html/education.html#

Tim Rylands использует Myst для обучения школьников - особенно привлекательна фича позволяющая делать скриншоты с комментариями (вести дневник - где я был прошлым виртуальным детом)

Tim Rylands strategically uses Myst games to support literacy and communication skills and to facilitate whole-class discussion. He regularly focuses his lessons around Myst Exile, due to the compounding realism of the game as well as the fantastical elements that help to inspire his pupils and improve their metaphorical skills.

Rylands' innovative work has lead to a number of achievements, such as the school being commended for the 'value added' levels that is has achieved. Rylands was also awarded the prestigious BECTA ICT in Practice Award 2005, for which he had to demonstrate a clear understanding of the role ICT can play in teaching as well as showing how ICT in a subject context can raise educational standards.




очень неплохой документ о том как организовать игры для учеников handout.doc

Practical Gaming in the Classroom

Why game in the classroom?
• Change of pace
• Fun for the students
• Fun for the teacher
• An excellent way to teach…
- English
- Thinking Skills
- Logic
- Social Skills
- Strategy



Golden Rules of Gaming when teaching English

1. You are the Game Master
- Break Rules!
- Make Rules!
- Change the Game!
- Change the Goal!
- Tilt the Game!
2. If a game doesn’t go over well, immediately stop or switch.
- If the kids aren’t having fun, they won’t learn.
3. Keep games exciting, quick, and fun.
- It’s not how fun you think the game is, it’s how fun the kids think it is.
4. Know your games.
- If you don’t know something, make it up!



Don’ts when teaching games in English

• Don’t win at all costs. This isn't about who the best player is.
• Don’t allow fights between students.
• Don’t allow "friendly" cooperation
• Don't let the game slow down. Keep the game moving, with "downtime" at a minimum.
• Don’t allow non-English communication
• Don’t be rigid and unflexible
• Don’t have too much downtime
• Don’t worry about finishing the game.


Do’s when teaching games in English

• Do keep it fair
• Do simplify (if necessary) - but realize that children are smarter than you might think.
• Do explain everything thoroughly in English
• Do enforce penalties and rewards
• Do improvise
• Do setup and prepare
• Do play a variety of games


Virtual History, Real Fantasies



http://www.totalwar.com/history.htm

Can videogames be used to recreate history? Well, considering that the US are literally rewriting the Vietnam conflict with the aide of electronic simulations (virtual revisionism?), it comes as no surprise that the History Channel is launching a new television series titled Decisive Battles that will use The Creative Assembly's soon-to-be-released PC game Rome: Total War to recreate ancient battlegrounds. Hosted by Matthew Settle (Band of Brothers) the half-hour series will debut on Friday, July 23 at 9:00 PM ET, with a segment showing how Hannibal's outnumbered infantry and cavalry managed to encircle the entire Roman army of nearly seventy thousand men and win the Battle of Cannae, "the biggest defeat ever suffered by Rome" (ouch). A similar show, Time Commander, had been aired last season on the sublime BBC. Here is a detailed description:

DECISIVE BATTLES is unlike any series The History Channel has ever aired. Employing the same advanced computer gaming technology as in the highly-anticipated new video game Rome: Total War™ , the series gives viewers an unprecedented perspective of ancient battles by re-creating troops in their vast numbers and landscapes on a scale otherwise impossible. Instead of recounting these ancient battles though drawings, paintings and reenactments using actors, they spring to life in this new computer animation that allows viewers a gods-eye view of the battlefield with its massive numbers of troops, their formations, and the weapons and strategies each side employed. Viewers will get the vantage point the generals wish they’d had.
You can find more info right here.