Depending on the topics it can be used as visualisation, I have given the students the task of being history detectives, as writing starters, the students have written add ons to different games. It is a bit like using novels in class. It can be used in a various ways. Hope that answer your question

Terje

Years ago (in the 90's), TIME magazine featured a teacher who was using Civilization in class. It helped students realizing how different patterns of dynamics in history worked. It is a great game for that.

only go political if it doesnt support some crazy antihumanity ideology

btw what do you want to teach them with these games?

for history:
europa universalis 4

These are pretty cool looking and they have plenty of info from the eras you should definitely try these:
Discovery Tour by Assassin's Creed, which includes:
- Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt
- Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece by Ubisoft

I'm curious: How did you present the material? And how did students and parents react to this experiment?

This is truly progressive and I would love to hear more about your experiences - if you can spare the time.

Thank you!

Pirates! (may be) a bit more casual and pursues similar goals

Check out the One Day Games thread. This is to V2, but there's a link to the original thread in the first post as well. These are games that can supposedly be finished in one day. You may find some there that will fit your needs.

Hehe, well, not entirely. :D

Well frankly, I wouldn't use any game as a primary source for information and learning, but since games are such a powerful interactive medium, the point is to connect it to something and make the learning experience better.

It's the same with memorizing something, it's often adventitious to connect the information to something.

But there might another game that is more appropriate because I've not tried Jotun myself. Apsulov - End of Gods would perhaps be a much better choice when it comes to the mythology and story wise at least. I forgot to include it in the first post.

If I remember correctly it isn't long either...

I used to send Professor Overmars bug reports ages ago for the first few iterations of Game Maker. I got an A in a human anatomy presentation by turning it into a game. Folks had to fly a mini ship in a heart and blast calcium buildup in an inplanted valve. And I used Game Maker to do it.

It's amazing how similar it was back them to what it is today.

And he was super-smart and kind.

As far as classroom games:

Archive.org has The Oregon Trail which is a classic elementary and middle school game that still has something to teach today. Just be careful because there's unfiltered porn in there too.

Tons of sim games - traffic, trains, zoos, skyscrapers, cities, etc.

Neverwinter Nights has been used to build modules to teach setting specific as a multiplayer experience, or to build stories with the toolset and learn some C.

Universe Sandbox to learn about the distances and sizes of stellar bodies and see and play with gravity and mass.

Kerbal Space Program - the very best game to learn about space and gravity and rocketry.

I have huge amounts of respect for Professor Overmars. His book on Algorithmic Geometry was an eye-opener. I have never seen the topic explained in such an accessible way. He also is one of the reasons why we got introduced to visualization of algorithms, which is now a staple in the curriculum with regular seminars held year after year. It was still a first for us by the time I attended University.

Professor Overmars' book was one of the rare works that "show" what algorithms do, provide real life examples and make the concept tangible.

Prior it was (and in many cases sadly still is) that old Maths professor standing in front of the class, facing away from the students, mumbling to his white-board while writing in rapid succession one proof after the other of abstract concepts that he never bothered to explain, having a bit of a public meltdown if and when anybody ever dares to ask "what would you use this for".

You might as well stay at home and dig your nose into a dusty old text book, which probably still explains it way better than not getting anything explained at all during the official "lecture". I only passed my Maths exams because I bought and memorized something that everybody just calls "The Bronshtein", a gray brick of 1200 pages originally published in 1945 and euphemistically titled "Handbook of Mathematics".

As far as I am concerned, those graybeards might want to take a lesson on how it is done from Professor Overmars et al.

What, no love for SimCity/Micropolis? They used to have proper educational guides that came with special editions of it!

Nice to hear that. Never heard about the educational guides, but it allowed playing with notions of urban planning.

Hi, send me an email at Terje.pedersen@bergen.kommune.no and we can talk more about this.

Terje
Hi, I have put Anno on my list for games to try out, really looking forward to Anno 1800, to learn about the industrial revolution