Globoria Game Design

 

1. Which one do you like the best?

I liked the Paleoquest.  This game was my favorite as the levels followed a timeline, and each time you became more evolved!

2. What content is being learned?

The content being learned was the development of organisms over Earth's history.  Each time the player became more evolved you must navigate through a new environment, he or she must consume more DNA.

3. Do you think it effectively teaches the content?

I believe it does effectively teach the content, as it displays different environments that these organisms must survive in.  It also touches the matter of differences between single celled organisms, all the way up through the DNA difference.

4. Does it involve higher order thinking?

I believe it does involve higher level thinking, as it causes the player to explore environments, find DNA and meet certain requirements to evolve, the same requirements that these organisms met to evolve.

5. Does the game possess and principles of good games and learning:

• 1.They can create an embodied empathy for a complex system 
• 2. They are action-and-goal-directed preparations for, and simulations of, embodied experience” 
• 3. They involve distributed intelligence via the creation of smart tools 
• 4. They create opportunities for cross-functional affiliation  
• 5. They allow meaning to be situated 
• 6. They can be open-ended, allowing for goals and projects that meld the personal and the social

This game does meet some of these points.  THe player becomes the organism trying to survive in a hostile environment, thuse creating empathy for the system in which it is apart.  The game gets the social aspect by having the player meet his or her mate in order to continue in the game.

6. In your opinion do you think letting kids design games is productive activity for school based learning?

I believe that letting students create the games is a very productive activity for learning.  Most students play games.  Most students learn through means other than reading a textbook.  If having students take information that we which for them to learn, and put that information in a game format that creates and environment to leanr that information then I believe it is very beneficial to learning.