It’s hard to find a theme that all the kids will like, though you have to try. The other thing is that sometimes you have sticks as well as carrots (e.g. “well, you can play the game or attend the lecture, the test is next week” :).

I’m all for this idea. For years I’ve maintained that if the right stuff was put into kid’s games, for instance, we could be on a winner with learning. Two things brought me to this conclusion:

1 – I was totally ignorant of anything to do with munitions, artillery, war strategies etc simply because I’ve been a pacifist all my life and never got into that sort of stuff as a child. But when I started playing Sid Meier’s Civilization I learnt so much so quickly (I had to, to survive the game) that it blew my socks off! It was simply a game but it taught me so much and not just about armaments.

2 – I have been into designing and building RLO’s (reusable learning objects) for about a decade now. These interactive online devices have potential for use in the elearning environment provided kids are interested in using them.

Put the two ideas together – a game/a learning device – and you have to be on to something really powerful as a teaching device.

The lure for most kids has to be found though. Not all kids are interested in the same things. How do you avoid having to build several games themes to teach the same learning?

Ka kite
from Middle-earth