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Spore in the NYT”
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
The NYT Magazine has a great read by Spore creator Wil Wright (I’ve written about Spore before here).
The article:
It occurred to me as I wandered through the halls of the Spore offices that a troubled school system could probably do far worse than to devote an entire, say, fourth-grade year to playing Spore. The kids would get a valuable perspective on their universe; they would learn technical skills and exercise their imaginations at the same time; they would learn about the responsibility that comes from creating independent life. And no doubt you would have to drag them out of the classrooms at the end of the day. When I mentioned this to Eno, he immediately chimed in agreement. “I thought the same thing,” he said. “If you really want to reinvent education, look at games. They fold everything in: history, sociology, anthropology, chemistry - you can piggyback everything on it.”
Not bad, eh?
We certainly can’t do any harm that way. One thing that may help this game really get out there is that it seems to be coming out on every platform imaginable. That way you may be able to get some manner of critical mass going in a classroom, if not a school.
What would be really cool is if there were an online (out of game) designer that you could create objects in that would then populate your game at home. This may make it easier for stuffy school admin/PTA types to swallow.
By Raj on 2006 10 12
Here’s someone else thinking that an external editor would be cool:
http://totalspore.com/articles/rumors/advance-content-editor/
By Raj Boora on 2006 10 12
hi bill,
i haven’t played spore yet, but will definitely check it out. i am a first year teacher at the academy of urban planning and have recently begun to incorporate the use of simcity 4 into a planning related seminar course that i have been coteaching to our seniors. i couldn’t agree with you more on your assessment of the value of utilizing cots in the classroom. many students have become much more engaged as we began using the game and discussing its underlying assumptions about city management. some students have already made some fairly sophisticated cities. below is a link to my first attempt at an online assignment related to the students’ gaming experiences thus far.
http://aupseniorseminar.edublogs.org/
By jonathan martin on 2006 10 15
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Bill MacKenty, Chief Zuccini
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