As some of you know, I've been playing with a geography game for kids. I started it to help my daughter learn geography, but as I've worked my way through it, I've found I like doing this kind of thing. Having bought a copy of her social studies book for the upcoming year and having read through the first parts of it, I can see lots of opportunities for games to fill in the information left out in that appallingly bad textbook. More posts on that later.
Right now, though, I want to call your attention to bigposters.com who could serve my printing needs for maps for my games. Up to now I've had to make do with the local Kinkos and the results have not been great. The maps are expensive and take quite a bit of fumbling around to get done right. It looks like bigposters could take my electronic files, produce my maps and mail them back to me for a reasonable price.
I also work trade shows for my day job from time to time and their retractable banner stand looks like something I could use. We're going through a series of changes in our marketing materials and having ready access to an on-line source for trade show materials would be a real boon.
If you've got any printing needs, check out bigposters.com.
This could be alot of fun, KT.
ReplyDeleteWhen my kids started playing video games (Nintendo) and MAGIC, the card game, conventional wisdom was, it would rot your brain, and there was general dismay expressed by all the "experts." MAGIC cards were banned in schools.
But in watching the kids, and looking at the games, I noticed two things that I wished educational programs could tap and incorporate:
1. There was no manual, no cheat codes on the internet at the time, and as the kids worked to beat the levels, they talked to each other: "Oh, you beat level six? How did you do it?" And the other kid would describe the steps, you go here, you turn there, you do this, and then you fight this guy, and the way to beat him is this... and even kids who weren't "A" students took it all in, remembered every step, and went home and beat the level. Then they also passed the knowledge on in the same way that early settlers in this country used to pass on directions to navigate the countryside. They were engaged and committed.
2. MAGIC cards are a rich source, everything you need to make up a "GATE" Gifted and Talented lesson plan - vocabulary, art, mythology, commerce, strategy, critical thinking and discipline...
Do you think there is any way to incorprate those elements into an educational game or program?