I have been reading a lot and thinking a lot about gaming. It always amazes me how much time students will spend on games while they could not imagine putting that same time into school work. What makes great gamers? They are creative in solutions to problems, they are resilient, gritty, and often in some games work well with others.
So can we start a new game called Slay economics. The goal of the game is up to each player to set for themselves. Once you set this goal the first thing you should do is find some allies. Do you have friends in economics class that will help you reach that goal. Some people who will give you positive feedback as you move toward the desired goal Allies are the type of people who will help explain concepts to you. Second identify the bad guys. These are the obstacles that prevent you from accomplishing your economics goals. Make sure your allies no of these bad guys so that they can help you overcome them. Third, we need some power packs. These are things we can go to when we are not feeling so good about economics. My suggestion is that you master two graphs, perfect competition and monopoly graphs. Become an expert in these graphs and on days that you are feeling bad about economics just draw these graphs and dazzle yourself with your economics skill. The power packs just help give you a positive lift when you are feeling better about the game.
If you are struggling with motivation about economics I suggest you start this game.
Okay, who is ready to play? Any suggestions from the gamers out their for our game?
I think part of what makes gaming so appealing is just that it's (generally) stress free and gets people away from what needs to be learned in school. Making games out of school can help you learn, but in the end, at least to me, school matters and video games don't. I love to play video games and i like school, but I can fail a video game terribly and nothing about it matters. I could lose everything and everyone in the game I played and not remember any of the information I learned from said video game, but it doesn't change my future or who I will become. It has very little influence on what is to come. That's why video games, for me, are a way to escape from things that could potentially be stressful. School matters a lot more than a silly game so I don't always treat it that way. This is just the way I see it.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I do understand that video games take away a lot of time that could be spent on better things, like reading articles and blogs (such as this one). While it's good to get away from stress, I think we tend to get away so often that it becomes unreasonable and puts us at a disadvantage. Also, generally, if you choose the video game, you're likely to do better at it and enjoy it more than taking a class you might not love quite as much and might not be as good at.
thanks for taking the time to respond, while you do not take these games seriously I do know people who do. I think what makes games great is the immediate feedback that you get from them, and that most people think that they can win
ReplyDeleteWhat I personally like about video games is the visible and quantifiable progress you make. While in real life you can't really define your learning, in games everything's broken down into numbers that clearly reflect a growth in your character. I think this immediate gratification is what makes games fun for me in particular.
ReplyDeleteAs for turning economics into a game, as an initial thought, I don't think it would be very effective. It just seems like too much of a stretch to switch people's mindset about economics to one like that of a game.
That said, I'd be happy to try and help get this happening. I've written down some ideas that I'll bring in early tomorrow morning.