Teachers are using Neverwinter Nights in what seems to be a similar way that the Oregon Trail was used, and scores are tripling.
Raph’s Website » Using NWN for basic learning skills
I think this is the fundamental error many educators make — they think that everyone finds learning for learning’s sake to be engaging. The article notes that the kids had chosen to blow off basic literacy and numeracy skills because they didn’t see them as directly applicable to their main goal — kind of like I have rarely needed to use the quadratic equation in my daily life. This is exemplified by the classic word problem they give you in math class: who gives a damn when exactly two cars driving opposite directions will cross paths on the highway? Why would one care?
It’s funny to hear this, because HOW MANY TIMES DID WE SAY THIS AS KIDS GROWING UP? Who gives a flying crap how fast trains are going? Now, if they can only figure out a better way to teach Social Studies instead of having to memorize names and dates. One thing is for sure: Reading Raph’s book has made his blog not only more digestible, but also delicious.
