I'm not much of a gamer. Once upon a time I was addicted to Age of Empires and the Sims and Winning Eleven, but that was precisely the problem: I was addicted to them. So I cut them off for good. At school we never used digital games in the classroom; just one that helped you type faster (boring). So this topic caught my attention, because it was a concept that was completely new to me. The Skype session we had with Graham Stanley triggered my curiosity and I've been trying different games since yesterday.
Although I liked the "exit-the-room" genre, and I can see how they could be used with students to practice comprehension, or giving instructions, or using the past tense, or the present and lots of other language points, they were not the ones I liked best. The thing is, I found the ones I tried to play too easy. And I don't feel students would necessarily need to listen to or read a walkthrough to succeed.
Two games that I did find interesting, though, were Spent and Enercities.
As well as teaching History, I teach Geography, and I volunteer at an NGO that educates for peace. Both in Geography and in CISV, it is common for me to deal with the issue of Sustainable Development.
Reading first the activities proposed by Graham Stanley for the use of Enercities, I realized that this game would be great for both environments. In the classroom in particular, it would give students the chance to see how difficult it is to balance the interest of businessmen, ecologists, and politicians; something that is difficult to grasp when dealing with 12 year olds. To the activities proposed I would add a couple of things. Before playing the game I think I would have students watch Story of Stuff for which I have prepared a viewing guide with activities for my students this year. The aim of this is to get students to approach the game in a serious way. I'm thinking that if I came up to the classroom one day and told them they'd be playing a game, as they're not used to it, they'd think it's just for fun. In this way, they'd be approaching the topic from a more "serious" perspective, thinking already about the impact they themselves have on the planet.
The other thing I would add to the activities proposed by G. Stanley would be to stop the game halfway, have students change places and advice their classmates on what they should do now. This would give them the chance of using 2° Conditionals to give advice (If I were you I would). They could also practice giving advice using "might" (Well... now you might want to build a new power station). Also, they could be asked to write a speech impersonating either a politician, a businessman or an environmentalist, to convince the audience why they should build X or Y.
As regards Spent, I really liked the ideas G. Stanley gave us yesterday, of having small groups of students play together, and have them discuss the implications of each of the decisions they can take. This would communicative discussion, and would open up the debate for different moral choices. At CISV we "play" something similar but the analogic version. It's a sort of simulation game. I think Spent could be used to prepare the kids who will participate in CISV summer camps, as it involves the same kind of tasks they would do when they travel: discussing open topics that don't have just one answer, putting themselves in other people's shoes, listening to other people's opinions and the like.
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