Games in the Classroom - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 14

shown in Figure 2.1. I realize I m only using an analogy here, but that analogy

creeps me out more than any standardized zombie invasion.

'

Figure 2.1
Portrait of a Childwith a Coral (1636).

Who decided when to pull the switch? Okay, enough of this learning about the

world naturally. I want you to sit there, unmoving, and listen while I do your
thinking for you. Memorize what I

“

m saying so you can take a standardized test
so you can be compared to lots of other standardized children, and our school
will get paid better for educating you better.

'

�

Happily, educators for years have devised their own ways of retaining a sense of
play in the classroom. Even in the face of multiple choice exams, so that
computers can grade for us and then compile all sorts of data full of rich mining
opportunities, games sneak into the classrooms. So it shouldn t be any surprise

that when video games came along, they were smuggled in as well.

'

Educational Software
Educational software has been around a lot longer than you might think. Flight
simulators date back to the 1940s. The original PLATO (Programmed Logic for
Automated Teaching Operations) system was developed in 1960 at the