Game On.

This article from Edutopia called Teaching Tools: Using Online Simulations and Games encourages teachers to investigate how to use online gaming and simulations in the classroom. The article offers examples of how teachers have successfully done so. The most interesting to me was the Evoke. This was a graphic novel type adventure to help students understand the impact they have on the "changing world". This would be a great website to use in teaching kids about Sustainability Literacy.

The other two websites that they encouraged use of were World of Warcraft which is a very popular website for kids and SimCEO which helps kids understand the intricacies of the stock market.

I am still hesitant to encourage gaming any more than kids already do. It seems that kids have enough screen time and it's time to teach them how to interact personally and socially on a face to face level. However, it seems that if you get to the point where "you can't beat 'em; join 'em" there are a lot of engaging opportunities out there for teachers.

Boss, S. (5/10/10).edutopia. Teaching Tools: Using Online Simulations and Games. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/online-games-simulations-teaching-tools