Serious games for social good?

Can serious games help people embroiled in ethnic and religious conflicts come together? Watch this short video of a computer game designed to bring Palestinians and Israelis closer together:

(If the video embed from YouTube doesn't show up, you can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iPvWefuPwo )

Games for social good or change are often considered a branch of serious games. Their focus is on social issues and social change.

Explore the following links that provide information about games for change:

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_for_change

Games for social change - http://www.gamesforchange.org/

Examples of games for change:

A list of games exhibited at the 2006 Game for Change conference - http://www.gamesforchange.org/conference/2006/expo.asp

Questions

What do you think of the use of games for change in a K-12 setting?

What sort of games would work and why would you use them?

From Shari:

I would like to share the following serious game (brand new, under development, something to watch for): Village, The Game I think it could be a great educational supplement for K-12 - (world) history, geography, culture studies, language arts, more.

--

From Kyle:

I think the use of G4C is not only ok for the K-12 setting, but that they should be encouraged. The benefits of similation technology in terms of its ability to facilitate deep learning -- i.e., the ability to see and understand the deep interconnectedness and effects of the variables acting in a given system -- are well worth the initial investment.  As Stieff and Wilensky's (2003) study illustrates, learners do much better when they get a chance to interact with and see the consequences of interfering with the various processes inside the systems they are trying to learn. And, in a simulated environment, failure becomes a learning experience without actually ruining anything. Similarly, I think most K-12 students would rather play Civilization IV than take notes on a lecture on history, or economics, or social studies or law any day.

Stieff, M. and Wilensky, U. (2003). Connected chemistry--incorporating interactive simulations into the chemistry classroom. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 12, (3). 285-302.

From Paul:

Here's an interesting example for Primary Grades in the area of PSE (Personal and Social Education) The Just Like .... series. Themes that are addressed are: bullying, disruptive behavior, and dealing with parental expectations and conflict at home. I haven't used these in the classroom, but they look very useful. (I did bid for one on eBay, but wasn't successful!)

From Ada:

I totally support the use of games for change in the K-12 setting.  In many elementary schools, students get designated computer time where teachers often struggle to find purposeful things for them to do, so to implement serious games that are perhaps relevant to subjects in the curriculum would be extremely beneficial, purposeful, and hopefully fun!  One classic subject that can be easily tied to many games relating to geography, history, and/or social change would be Social Studies or Social Responsibility.  In fact, does anyone have any good online serious games that are free to access that they can direct me to, so I can try them with my class and maybe try to even tie in an assignment or discussion with it?

From Mike:

Depending on the classes that I teach, yes I use games in these classes.  In my socials classes, I used games from lizard point (http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/index.html)   or sheppard software (http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/) for geography.  In my IT classes, I used various other typing programs instead of the already installed All the Right Type or Super Mario Typing.  The kids had to find, install, and evaluate, other typing programs from www.downloads.com.  With typing such a boring task, by "playing" these games, the task became tolerable.  Even Facebook has some games that can be played (scrabble, mastermind, traveller IQ challenge).  These games can be used in english, math, and socials.  Regardless of the subject or grade level, there is a game available.

From Micah:

Personally I really believe that games have a very important role to play in the k-12 education system. Many games are very interactive and provide the user with instant results / feedback which is not always available in teacher/student classrooms that include many students. A great location of video games to allow students to practice their learning is the math class. Rather than answering questions from a textbook which may seem boring to students a sense of “fun’ can be created by having students answer a series of questions in a video game. Possibly because the students are able to answer the questions with a sense of purpose which is often lacking in regular face to face classes.

In addition, in Science and Technology 11 I often have the students play RollerCoaster Tycoon. The students are not allowed to hire janitors or add trash cans to their park. Quickly the garbage and vomit piles up and the park looks quite disgusting as you can imagine. The students are able to test cause and effect and see directly the impact of people on their environment. It would be very hard to test this in real life. 

From Shari:

What an interesting example of a serious game, Micah -- and you're right, it would be very hard to test in real life (thankfully!) -Unless, of course, everyone got a laptop and started becoming an entrepreneur, leaving nobody interested in janitorial or garbage collector work - or rice harvesting, crop cultivation... The picture I'm painting is hopefully not one of the future - where we pop simulated 'food' pills like the ones from Willy Wonka's factory ...

From Tracey: 

I totally think that games in the K-12 system are valuable.  I am always looking for games that are connected to the curriculum and can be accessed free online.  I have looked forward to this module for this reason among others. 

--

From Shari: