Get the RSS feed | Jim McDermott Archives

A Taste of My Own Medicine
by Jim McDermott

I promised that I would share my favorite educational games and next on my list is a game I grew up with.  SimCity has been hailed for being a game rich in a wide range of learning experiences from balancing complex budgets to studying the impact of pollution on fragile ecosystems to planning interstate transportation systems.  Really, the impact of this game on my development as a citizen of an urban metropolis is amazing.  I have more of an interest in urban planning than I ever would have had with strong feelings on zoning laws, architecture, mass transit, and environmentalism amongst other game-inspired frames of reference. 

I started playing SimCity classic and progressed through each rebirth of the game until Simcity 4.  Each game became more sophisticated and required deeper, high order critical thinking and problem solving skills than the previous version.  By the time SimCity 4 came out, some of my peers gave up because they said the complexity ruined the fun.  Not I.  I looked at each city as a masterpiece.  I often wished others could enjoy what I made as much as I did but they usually looked at my creation for a second and said, "That's nice."  That's nice?  Don't you see I created a whole state map worth of fiscally balanced, artistically designed cities that took me months to make??  (OK, I'm backing away from the pain) 

So in preparation for this post, I decided to buy the latest in the SimCity series: SimCity Societies.  Put simply:  I'm lost.  This game has added a completely different twist -- something on a sociological angle where cities are powered by creativity, authority, knowledge, or spirituality.  Completely unexpected but not without the initial learning phase that comes from the hands of game designers eager to draw me in.  In order to get me to understand how to play this version, I am greeted with tutorial maps and step by step directions with explanations of how to play. 

So it's easy to learn, right?  But it still requires an understanding of a new complex system which I can tell is going to cost me hours of game play.  As I ponder the return on investment of my time, I'm encountered with a taste of my own medicine.  I advocate that educators explore and play video games in order to fully understand the impact they can have in the classroom.  Now I am experiencing what many of you will -- the steep learning curve involved in acclimating to gameplay.  Yet, considering the state of gaming in education, avoiding this form of professional development isn't really an option.  Every week we find new articles pointing toward the efficacy of gaming in teaching and learning (great article: Gaming helps students hone 21st-century skills).

As games become more of a mainstream form of entertainment, communication, and teaching, gaming falls into the category of professional development: things we do to become better educators.  You can increase your teaching skillset by embracing a game you think will engage, motivate, and immerse your students in learning.  Choose your game wisely based on recommendations, then spend as much time with it as you would with other professional development experiences.  You'll learn, you'll see how games teach, and you'll have fun. 

Last week's recommendation:  Tabula Digita's DimensionM.  This week: SimCity... version 2000 for now.

Jim McDermott has served the New York City Department of Education as a music teacher and an instructional technology specialist. He has presented at state, regional, and national education technology conferences on topics such as project based learning, immersive gaming, online learning communities, and technology based curriculum development. As an avid blogger, Mr. McDermott's "Tales of a Technology Omnivore" can be found at http://techomnivore.wordpress.com. His current interests revolve around online learning, web 2.0 tools in the classroom, and his long time passion: feature rich mobile devices.
  • Anonymous on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 18:18

    As someone who is completely unacquainted with SimCity in any capacity, I believe that the introduction of SimCity: Society to high schools as an after-school program or elective is a fantastic idea. Students often wonder why they are required to study Philosophy and/or Sociology, and are oftentimes unable to align their theoretical studies to pragmatic life situations. It would be rather interesting, and educational, for teachers to get a hand-on view of their young adult learners truly learning about themselves as individuals by watching them create worlds governed from the perspective of an authoritarian, a spiritual idol, a timeless sage, or an eccentric creative.

    To this end, as professionals studying and working with "21st Century Innovations" do we really get hung-up on aligning SimCity: Society, or any other gaming software, to state learning standards and pacing guides? I say: “NOT!” Once, educators and students alike begin to learn, explore, and manipulate complex societies or mathematical terrain in virtual worlds, everything else in the realm of marketing for school-wide distribution, or packaging for state standards will follow.

    The greatest innovators were not those who busied themselves with policy, but those who transcended intellectual boundaries by pushing their vision’s envelope – thus, deviating from the norm. There is always a forum and a justification for new ways to learning; we just have not exhausted all of the possibilities. Or maybe, we were not passionate about any one particular tool to feel the need to do so. Maybe SimCity: Society or Tabula Digita can be the catalyst. But before I start a gaming revolution, I guess it would make sense that I learn both ;-). In the meantime, we should all seriously reflect on our passions in regards to Instructional Technology whether it be gaming or otherwise. Until…

    Jacquii Leveine
    Assistant Director of Instructional Technology - Bronx
    NYC DOE

  • Anonymous on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 14:59

    As a former SimCity addict (seriously), this post really resonates with me. I think the issue though is that teachers need administrative support to justify their time expenditure in learning, and then using, a game with students. This would require the game manufacturers to really market themselves as educational tools i.e. align to standards, scope and sequence, etc. Or…a motivated educator or ed tech person could do this for some of the more valuable and popular educational games. Perhaps also aligning with something like the Partnership for 21st Century Skills would work as well.

    With the big push toward developing engineers in the U.S. I would think the SimCity sell may not be such a stretch, but again, I think the value has to come from a school administrator willing to recognize and reward their teachers for this work. And, this administrator will also have to be able to answer to the districts they report to. If they had the facts in place i.e. alignment to standards, prep for 21st Century Skills and perhaps even entering and placing in competitions, this would definitely be attractive for leaders.

    For schools that are not yet onboard with using gaming to engage, it might be started as an elective or after-school program. A concrete idea for those interested to get started may be checking out the http://www.futurecity.org/ site and taking a look at that competition. Interested educators could start the ball rolling now…learning the game, making a case and begin getting ready to participate next year.

    Lisa Nielsen
    Manager of Instructional Technology PD
    NYC DOE
    Visit my blog on educating innovatively at http://TheInnovativeEducator.blogspot.com

    • Post new comment