Obama Announces Educational Game Challenge

[benbenthegamerman]

As it has previously been said on Extra Credits, the best way to make a game educational is not by forcing the knowledge down the players throat, but rather by making it easier to do tangental learning in game (see lore menu in Dragon Age: Origins.)

 

[benbenthegamerman]

Make a video game that will teach me programming and ill be happy

With the problem that, that's practically impossible. Programming for what? Games, web pages, console applications?

I mean think of the list of languages there are: C, C++, VB, ASM, EXSE, Python, C-Sharp, HTML, XHTML, Java, Javascript.

And there's probably more. Besides how would you make a game that explains something like:

title Generic (Generic.asm)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;The purpose of this program is to confuse a forum.						;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

.model small;Establishes the maximum size of space allowed.

.stack 100h;Allocates 256 (decimal), or 100 (hexadecimal) for use.

.data
message1 db "Can you understand this?", 0dh, 0ah, '$'

.code
main proc
mov ax, @data	;Establishes the data segment
mov ds,ax	

mov ah,9	;Print procedure is called
mov dx, offset message1;address of first string to print
int 21h		;execute interrupt 21

main endp

END main

You do have a point kind sir. That would be a very confusing and boring game, if at all.

It would, but there are ways to make HTML especially fun to learn. If you let someone do there own thing but teach them to improve upon it with HTML tactics, it can be quite fun.

 

[Dastardly]

you make a fair point my good man/woman.
i agree with it but i still think there is a way to combine the game part without undermining the learning bits.any regular game teaches people to solve small problems that they don't even think about twice anymore. there is hope in mixing the two.

There is. The goal should be to create tasks (not just games) in which students NEED to think mathematically or scientifically to succeed. They will develop the skills when they are faced with a task that requires them, as do any of the useful people in the world.

This leads to the same end (creation of educational games), but with a better and smarter motivation. You're not trying to artifically "make math fun." You're demonstrating how it's already useful.

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

How about addressing the curriculum in schools? When I was in grade-school, education was more of a chore for rote and testing patience than a focus on true application. There is a strict limitation that the teachers are forced into, and unfortunately, that regimen lacks any semblance of the real world. Even in social studies classes, current events and relating history to the present are taken for granted, while memorizing obscurities and specific facts dominate. It does not even come down to making math "fun," but how math can be appropriately applied in the real world and making learning fun. My favorite math classes were business math because I knew that it was an important life skill in contrast to finding the angle of a triangle so Example Edward can sleep at night over his conveniently geometry-related problem. Science was always my favorite subject due to its relevancy in the world and life around us, but that was dependent on the class in question (e.g. Anatomy).

Regardless, I'm not knocking the premise of an educational game competition as it is a great idea if it leads to games that offer additional learning benefits along with entertainment.

 

[BoogieManFL]

100k? That's the best they cam put into this?

 

[Mopar63]

Wow what a great idea I am suprised no one thought of it before...Oh wait, they did! AMD started the Change the Game program in 2008. I guess if you cannot come up with a great idea you can always steal one.

 

[SimuLord]

OK, so we give the buffalo hunting minigame to Gearbox, the trading and buying supplies to Daniel Dumont (Patrician/Port Royale/Darkstar One), and we let Polyphony Digital design the handling on the covered wagons.

Oregon Trail made more awesome.