Game-Based Learning

I looked at Sim Sweatshop. I accepted the challenge to enter the world of sweatshop and become a factory worker. I hope to be able to survive while making sport shoes for less than a dollar an hour. My wage is $6.05 for a full days work. A standard working day is 12 hours. My assignment is to make 3 sport shoes by the end of the day. Here I go...Oh my word! I worked as fast as I possibly could and did NOT meet my shoe target. I only made 1 sports shoe today. My pay was docked and I only made $2.01 for my daily wage. UGH!!! I will continue... because my energy has dropped by 49%, I must remember to replenish my energy with food and drink. I will skip the food because it is too costly ($1.49) and only purchase a drink, which cost $.0.29...I will continue... OH MY WORD!! My neighbor asked me to join a union, I said "yes", however, my management finds out about this and coincidently everyone involved gets mugged by a group pf men...as a result of the beatings I loose 40% of my total energy....this game is horrible!!! I buy another drink for $0.29...ok, back to work...finally, the factory has been asked to double it's production for the summer season, my line manager asked me to add another 4 hours to my working day and I will not be paid, I must say "yes" because I fear the consequences if I say "no" this added 5 sport shoes to my daily work. I had to finally stop playing this game because it was so depressing...I was getting nowhere FAST! Wow, what a learning experience for sweat shops...depressing! Hopefully my next game will be FUN!:) Educationally, this game is a great toll to teach about other social, economic situations in other countries. This game would be a great "hook" for a social studies lesson or a cross-culture unit.

The next game I looked at is Chore Wars. I am interested in recruiting a party of adventurers from my household to help me with "chores".  Chore Wars lets you claim experience points for household chores. I like the idea of point rewards to individual tasks. As a teacher, this game could be used for classroom jobs. The students would love to create a character and I am sure they would be eager to help if points were involved:). This is a great game to make sure that everyone in the household or classroom is pulling their own weight. Quests are adventures that delete themselves automatically when they've been claimed. For example, if you say the bookshelf REALLY needs dusting, you could create a "dusting the bookcase urgently" chore that was a quest, the next person to dust the bookshelf would claim the quest. This game stimulates competition but for a good cause... everyone can be happy...the teacher or parent AND the student or child...the students/children will enjoy the competition (adults maybe too:)) and the teacher/parent will be able to have a clean house or organized classroom. Neat concept!!