Thursday, June 29, 2017

Five Educational Games I Wish I Had Invented


Jeopardy! - Growing up on the Monterey Peninsula, we were all aware of the local greats: John Steinbeck, Bing Crosby, Clint Eastwood, Paul Anka, and Merv Griffin. I knew of Merv Griffin, a mild-mannered talk-show host and former big-band crooner. Our claim to fame as teenagers was that one night we jumped the fence at Griffin’s private tennis club and swam in the pool. I had no idea he was a game show superstar and media mogul, creating shows such as Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! For Jeopardy!, he credited his then-wife, Julann, with the idea of reviving quiz shows by giving the players the answers and making them come up with the questions. It demanded the same kind of retrievable knowledge that quizzes require. Griffin even wrote the ear-worm jingle for Final Jeopardy! What Griffin may not have known was how easily teachers could adapt the game for whatever content they were teaching. “I’ll take HTML Tags for $600, Alex.” Jeopardy! was created in 1964, definitely before my time. But talk about staying power. As a show and as an online game, it’s still incredibly popular. But don’t forget to phrase your answer in the form of a question.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? - I was on a team tasked with creating online training for insurance premium entry systems. Our solution was to create a near-simulation which allowed students to try out the system without wrecking it. Another goal was to make the training engaging. Just up the road from us was Broderbund Software. They released an edutainment title that took the market by storm. By chasing a cartoon villain all over the world, players were pulled into locations, learning geography all along the way. I must say, as instructional designers, we were impressed: dreary education made engaging. Years later, I consulted with a geography teacher who wanted to create a geography game, but we couldn’t come up with any design improvements on what was already on the market. (Now I know it’s crying out for an Augmented Reality (AR) component…)

Pictionary® (MattelGames) - Charades was a classic party game. So Pictionary was a variation on that theme, using a marker. I can call it educational because drawing is a language in its own right, yet in our schools it gets relegated to the level of recreation or arts & crafts. I like it because I think visually and I like to draw. That gives me an unfair advantage over casual opponents. “Just watch what Les draws…”

Pokémon Go - I described training ideas for AR in an earlier blog entry, so when Pokémon Go took off last year, I felt vindicated… and left behind at the same time! It didn’t hurt to launch the new idea with an established, popular franchise. But by exploring the possibilities of AR for both entertainment and education, Pokemon Go really stepped out as a pioneer. It got fans off the couch and out looking for their favorite characters. Now let your imagination run wild. How can AR help museum tours, fix-it auto repairs, or local history stops? Gotta catch ‘em all!

Brixo blocks - Here’s an idea that’s emerging on the market. These bricks are “wired” so you learn about electronic connections and even the Internet of Things by assembling your own creations. Why didn’t I think of this next-step twist on a tried-and-true system?

What’s next?  Think… think… think...



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