Ironic

This has nothing to do with designing, but found it ironic. This morning I had a conference with a parent over the likely retention of his son. Although I think his parenting skills are a contributing factor to his son's lack of academic success, he blamed his child's decreasing grades on his excess time spent playing video games and watching tv. Hearing this made me chuckle, but also begs me to ask him why he allows his student to involve himself in these activities if he feels they are detrimental to his son's education. I told him that games can be valuable to his education if played for the right reasons and if monitored by adults. We went into a big discussion about problem solving, sharp critical thinking, personal involvement and communication with the game and its charcters........ Anyway I think by the end of the conference the father began to realize that his son's classroom efforts and his own reluctance to keep up with his child's education daily were two main factors in his child's failing marks. Before taking this cohort, I honestly do not know how I would have responded to that fathers statements about videogames and his son's failing grades. I am sure I would have agreed to much of what he said.

Just thought it was kind of appropriate to bring this up.

Roller Coaster Tycoon

The frustration continues. I have spent a few hours on Roller Coaster Tycoon and am still losing money. I haven't been able to get anyone to use the rides and food/drink stations I have opened. I put walkways to them, but keep getting messages that people cannot get to them. Not good. I guess I am going to have to go down to the kiddie level for a while and get some experience working with the tools.Like Gee says, a good video game allows learners opportunities to learn at their own pace throughout the game. As one master a level they gain the skills needed to attempt the next level I cannot get going on the first level, so I guess I need to drop down to the juvenile level (sandbox I believe it is). I like the idea of similations and see great value to classrooms, but convincing administration will never happen.

On another note. I started having my students design a super hero that they thought would be invincible. They took many different steps in designing the hero's powers, weaknesses, and weapons. They then had to describe their appearance. When the final designing is complete, they will then write a story putting the super hero to action. I think I might have them later design an arch enemy and take the writing and designing to a different level. Stay tuned.