Comment Article Text (Score 1, Informative) 364
By CHRIS LARSON
Published: May 27, 2004
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
IT'S the 1930's, and you have just been elected president of France on a promise to rebuild the French economy. But you learn that Germany is rapidly building its army, and your advisers are urging you to do the same. What will happen if you break your campaign pledge and divert resources and attention to building up the French military?
Or you're the British prime minister in 1938. Diplomats in Munich have reached a deal: Germany will be allowed to annex the Sudetenland if it promises that its expansion will go no further. What will the consequences be if you refuse to sign the agreement?
History is filled with such what-ifs, and a company called Muzzy Lane Software thinks they could help high school and college students learn about history and develop thinking skills. To that end, Muzzy Lane is getting ready to introduce schools to a technology that is already familiar to most of today's students: a video game, but one that is custom-designed for the classroom.
Making History is a multiplayer simulation that puts players in control of European governments before, during and after World War II. With a price tag somewhere between $25 and $40, the game is expected to be available in the fall from www .muzzylane.com.
Computer games have been used in education for years, especially at the elementary level, where there are thousands of software titles. At the high school and college level, though, strategy games are generally limited to stock market and election simulations, experts and teachers say. Muzzy Lane aims to change that.
The challenge is to "integrate the learning without preaching to the player," said Dave McCool, the president of Muzzy Lane. "You want to create an environment where they're learning."
The game's designers took elements of entertainment simulations - the graphics, the realistic cause-and-effect, the variety of challenges - and adapted them for classroom use by making the game customizable for different learning levels, breaking it into timed sessions and adding a variety of supporting material for instructors.
Making History starts in the 1930's. Students take on the roles of various European leaders, making decisions on taxes and spending, trade policy, international treaties and military action. The simulation engine calculates the effects of each player's actions and moves the game forward, sometimes with results that differ strikingly from actual events.
Muzzy Lane's designers expect players to rely on their knowledge of history; the game is meant to help them add to it by delving deeper into their history textbooks or Web sites to improve their performance.
Making History is also intended to encourage problem-solving and the understanding of cause and effect. Such skills "are difficult to teach in a textbook-and-lecture format," said Nick deKanter, vice president of Muzzy Lane. He said that a 2002 study from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars found that video game playing "builds on basic instincts for competition, interaction and imagination that are instinctive in so many people." The study recommended "combining these elements with instructive materials, or wrapping important content in a gaming package."
Some teachers have used popular games like SimCity and Civilization in classes, but education specialists say that such programs, while useful, ultimately fall short. "They're good games, but they're inherently weak on education," said Eric Klopfer, an assistant professor of science, education and educational technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "They can be harnessed for education, but they weren't designed from the ground up for education."
One of the biggest drawbacks is the games' lack of support materials to back up the content of the games. Making History will include comparisons to actual events, contextual commentaries and links to other history sources. The educational value of the game action increases when there is time to review and discuss what took place, Mr. McCool said. "We strongly believe that simulations require a good debriefing period."
Published: May 27, 2004
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
IT'S the 1930's, and you have just been elected president of France on a promise to rebuild the French economy. But you learn that Germany is rapidly building its army, and your advisers are urging you to do the same. What will happen if you break your campaign pledge and divert resources and attention to building up the French military?
Or you're the British prime minister in 1938. Diplomats in Munich have reached a deal: Germany will be allowed to annex the Sudetenland if it promises that its expansion will go no further. What will the consequences be if you refuse to sign the agreement?
History is filled with such what-ifs, and a company called Muzzy Lane Software thinks they could help high school and college students learn about history and develop thinking skills. To that end, Muzzy Lane is getting ready to introduce schools to a technology that is already familiar to most of today's students: a video game, but one that is custom-designed for the classroom.
Making History is a multiplayer simulation that puts players in control of European governments before, during and after World War II. With a price tag somewhere between $25 and $40, the game is expected to be available in the fall from www
Computer games have been used in education for years, especially at the elementary level, where there are thousands of software titles. At the high school and college level, though, strategy games are generally limited to stock market and election simulations, experts and teachers say. Muzzy Lane aims to change that.
The challenge is to "integrate the learning without preaching to the player," said Dave McCool, the president of Muzzy Lane. "You want to create an environment where they're learning."
The game's designers took elements of entertainment simulations - the graphics, the realistic cause-and-effect, the variety of challenges - and adapted them for classroom use by making the game customizable for different learning levels, breaking it into timed sessions and adding a variety of supporting material for instructors.
Making History starts in the 1930's. Students take on the roles of various European leaders, making decisions on taxes and spending, trade policy, international treaties and military action. The simulation engine calculates the effects of each player's actions and moves the game forward, sometimes with results that differ strikingly from actual events.
Muzzy Lane's designers expect players to rely on their knowledge of history; the game is meant to help them add to it by delving deeper into their history textbooks or Web sites to improve their performance.
Making History is also intended to encourage problem-solving and the understanding of cause and effect. Such skills "are difficult to teach in a textbook-and-lecture format," said Nick deKanter, vice president of Muzzy Lane. He said that a 2002 study from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars found that video game playing "builds on basic instincts for competition, interaction and imagination that are instinctive in so many people." The study recommended "combining these elements with instructive materials, or wrapping important content in a gaming package."
Some teachers have used popular games like SimCity and Civilization in classes, but education specialists say that such programs, while useful, ultimately fall short. "They're good games, but they're inherently weak on education," said Eric Klopfer, an assistant professor of science, education and educational technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "They can be harnessed for education, but they weren't designed from the ground up for education."
One of the biggest drawbacks is the games' lack of support materials to back up the content of the games. Making History will include comparisons to actual events, contextual commentaries and links to other history sources. The educational value of the game action increases when there is time to review and discuss what took place, Mr. McCool said. "We strongly believe that simulations require a good debriefing period."
