Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  E3 Report: Education Arcade - Case Studies: Civilization (18 May 2005) "I'm very interested with them understanding that sources disagree, that bias is a real thing in forming the past, and I'm interested with them coming up with their own meanings," he says, before noticing the ensuing chaos on the projector as Seed tries diligently to pull up his syllabus. Error windows are spawning and reproducing like the plague. Power Point has ceased responding. It's gotten so bad that even mouse movements are starting to lag. "Wow, that's amazing," he says, to a chuckling audience. "What simulation games represent in the classroom," McCall continued, "is a representation of reality. And it is usually a critically researched representation of reality, as much as any paper or book can be." "What's important for me, then, is to have my kids look at simulation games through a very critical perspective." "I'm most interested in my kids taking the gripping environment of the game and then saying, 'Is that valid?' At what point did the designer make decisions that were for gameplay for simplicity's sake?" McCall comments in conclusion: “I think one of the best results I've seen from using Civilization is my students actively questioning which aspects were included for the sake of the game, and which are truly accurate.” Article URL: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050518/cifaldi_01.shtml Read 352 more articles from Game Development Network sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: MIT TV     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy