techinpedagogy

Short Description: economics-games.com allows students to run simulations and make decisions as a market participant. A student may elect to play a solo game or a multi-player game, selecting from a variety of economic topics such as fixed costs, monopoly, competition, and prisoner's dilemma (to name only a few). Depending on the game, students are initially presented with certain data/information and must submit decisions based on what is provided. Once the student (or each player) makes a decision, the student is directed to a results page which can then be discussed with the teacher and/or as a class. Example of Uses: As an aspiring high school Social Studies teacher with a background in Economics, this seems like a great tool to use to supplement the introduction of economic/business terms and concepts. In the classroom, students can learn definitions and principles (i.e., the "Who", "What", "Where", "When"); in the simulations/games, students experience and demonstrate the practical application of such terms to understand the "How" and "Why". In this context, critical thinking skills are used to assess the information provided and arrive at a well-reasoned decision. Such skills are further developed as the students and teacher engage in a discussion about the rationale and impact of the choices of the student(s), without, of course, the pressure of real world economic consequences. With an often dry topic as Economics, this tech tool also seems like an effective way to keep a class interested and engaged with material. Perhaps bonus points could be offered to students who yield good results in their simulation and can support their decision-making with strong arguments. The obvious limitation is that this particular tech tool is designed for one subject. However, similar simulations and educational role-playing games exist for other content areas. In any case, the simulation or game should present information to the s

An online interactive textbook that allows students to practice critical thinking skills.

(Please note the link to a Free Demo download on the right hand side of the linked page) Orwell is an episodic indie game that puts players in the role of an analyst working for a fictional surveillance state in the wake of a bomb explosion in a public square. Players are tasked with scouring news sites, social networking sites, message boards, blogs, text chats, and the like for clues as to the identity of the bomber and possible motivations for the bombing. Potentially relevant information is highlighted, but it is up to the player to decide whether each piece of information is worthy of inclusion in a report to be passed up the chain of command. The items selected create the narrative that law enforcement will act upon, but the player has no say as to what actions are taken beyond selecting what to include in the accumulated data. The story unfolds through the narrative that player-selected data constructs and the actions that result. Mistakes can result in the detention or prosecution of innocents. This forces the player to exercise research and critical thinking skills, particularly evaluating data as relevant or irrelevant, reading between the lines, and maintaining awareness of how each piece of information contributes to an overall narrative. Embedded in all of this is a clever critique of the surveillance apparatus and how it relates to our conceptions of freedom, safety, and privacy-a critique, I would argue, worthy of the game's name. I selected Orwell for this critical thinking post because it is essentially a gamified exercise in research, or, put another way, research with training-wheels. All of the pieces of data that the user can include are presented in context, and players must evaluate how a clue relates to both its context and to the investigation as a whole in order to make useful selections. That kind of consideration is essentially what we are doing as we research material for inclusion in an academic paper, and so I believe the game doe