Gaming as Pedagogy - podcast

Gaming as Pedagogy

I am catching up on my Educause podcasts and I listened to this interesting podcast while running today. It is a 2006 podcast (although only posted on 4/9/07) by the creators of an economics course game from The University of North Carolina - Greensboro. The game sets players in a fictional world where they are forced to make ethical and economic decisions based on economic, political and social situations. The podcast is about 50 minutes, much of which is spent listening to clips from the game, but there are a handful a useful segments:

• The first five minutes discuss the educational aspects of games and why they are worthwhile for higher education.
• The next seven minutes describes the technology behind the game and how it was created. This was useful from a technical standpoint to know why they made the decisions they did for the game.
• At the 36:00 minute mark, they offer reflections on the development process and recommendations for others.

The course / game is first being used this semester and they have about 100 students enrolled in the course. So keep an eye out for some follow up discussion once this semester is over.

The podcast and gaming project is a great example for those of us who need some extra evidence to help convince a director or administrator about the viability for gaming in education.

Image via UNC-Greensboro