Classroom Tool

[DarkCloud]

If you were a teacher, would you use Colonization to teach your class?

I personally think it is an excellent learning resources. For example, when I first played it in 1994, I learned about the obscure Tupi Indian tribe and gained a special appreciation for the importance of trade routes and the evils of mercantilism

~DC.

[LivingstonBeeing]

I don't think, that it would be applicable.
If you don't like strategy games like Civ or Col, you won't learn anything...it would only be a plague for the students/pupils...
Maybe it works for very young people (6-8)..but as soon as they own a PS3 or something else its obsolete.

But:
I also learned much from Col...I'm from Germany and I didn't learn anything about the Indepence War or the history of the United States...but after Col I bought the one and only available book (in 1995) about the American history (German version)...and so I learned much more about the U.S. and visited Boston to learn straight from the horse's mouth

I like all the quotations in Civ 4, when you invented something new...You can use them in RL.

[snoopy369]

I would use it to garner interest in history, and encourage my class to each find one major gaff (intentional or not) that differs from real history. Appealing to the anal retentive student

[Unimatrix11]

Originally posted by LivingstonBeeing
I don't think, that it would be applicable.
If you don't like strategy games like Civ or Col, you won't learn anything...it would only be a plague for the students/pupils...
Maybe it works for very young people (6-8)..but as soon as they own a PS3 or something else its obsolete.

But:
I also learned much from Col...I'm from Germany and I didn't learn anything about the Indepence War or the history of the United States...but after Col I bought the one and only available book (in 1995) about the American history (German version)...and so I learned much more about the U.S. and visited Boston to learn straight from the horse's mouth

I like all the quotations in Civ 4, when you invented something new...You can use them in RL.

Well, just a guess, but i think the lack of american history in your classes is not only due to you being german, but more specifically, you being eastern german, if it was in Leipizig you went to school and depending on when it was. Near Hamburg, in the 90´s, i was taught about the american war of indepence, albeit the official version, that misses most of the important points of it, and more in english class than in historty class actually. But i could imagine, that this wasnt a topic in the GDR really and that shortly after the annexation (which it was really), there might have been a regional lack of teachers for it...

[dojoboy]

I've used Civ4 and Civ3. Civ: Colonization would certainly provide insight to the period. You just have to think through how you are going to present it.

[DanQ]

Re: Classroom Tool

Originally posted by DarkCloud
If you were a teacher, would you use Colonization to teach your class?

A just as important and related question is "... could...", both from a practical standpoint (i.e. (enough) computers with adequate system requirements to run it, licensing) and board approval for you to do so.

[DarkCloud]

Dan, all you'd need to do... if your classroom had a smart board or even a projector capable of hooking up to a computer- is to hook that up and demonstrate that way.

The kids would be interested by the game. Then maybe they'd go out and buy it and play and learn at home!

(Which is probably where the school board ************es would have an issue with it... alleging product placement and all )

[DanQ]

Originally posted by DarkCloud
Dan, all you'd need to do... if your classroom had a smart board or even a projector capable of hooking up to a computer- is to hook that up and demonstrate that way.

The kids would be interested by the game. Then maybe they'd go out and buy it and play and learn at home!

That too is a possibility, given as you allude to available technology, though it wouldn't be as interactive or have the potential to be as useful.

[Unimatrix11]

I think the gameplay of Civ would be rather unsuitable for teaching purposes, because the role of the player is a totally fictional one - nobody ever had to really make most of the dicisions we make in Civ. The civilopedia entries et al. are a different matter though. There is a lenghty discussion here on the forum somewhere, about wether civ is a sim or not - and only as such would the gameplay be suitable for teaching IMHO. The same applies to Col. I think the game, that is suitable for history-lessons has yet to be made and would probably be a bit dull. And i dont want to even bring the point of my view, that in real history the nations are not the players but the pieces...

All that doesnt mean though, that students shouldn´t be encouraged, by teachers, too, to play both games, for they certainly hold educational value.

Real simulations, software, where the principle ´gameplay balance beats realism´ is not being applied, should be used a lot more in classrooms, than i think it is, though.

On the topic i´d recommend: ´Computer simulation in science and mathematics education´ - a compilation of read-worthy essays.

[DarkCloud]

Unimatrix... have you ever seen the game "Capitalism." that might work somewhat for a mathematics education- it's only financial business mathematics- but it's frightenningly complex.

[Verrucosus]

A friend of mine taught an optional afternoon computer class in the late 90s. Pretty much every kid was playing Civ2, so he used it to connect the computer class with other subjects. Essays about the causes and effects of the real wonders immediately showed them how far Civilization is from simulating real history. Telling a couple of pupils who also took French to look for and correct spelling mistakes in the French civilopedia files brought complaints that such a task was off-topic in a computer class. He was particularly proud of his attempt to use Civ2 for statistics: "What are the odds of a crusader with full movement points winning (a) a single round of combat and (b) a battle against an unfortified musketeer on a river square with 20 % damage?" He took it pretty seriously when I told him years later that I had read (here, in fact) that the combat formula set out in the manual was incomplete.

It's always good to use something that the pupils are familiar with anyway to illustrate a point you want do make. (I did not have a problem illustrating the legal distinction between an offer and an invitation to make one ever since I realised how popular "Settlers of Catan" was.)

On the other hand, it would be wrong to make them buy and learn the game so that you can then use it to illustrate your point. With Civilization and certainly with Colonization, you will have to be very lucky to find a class where almost everyone is familiar with the game ... and luck might not even be the appropriate word for having a class where everyone is suffering from the one-more-turn-syndrome.

By the way, with gameplay as well-tweaked as it is now, I think this is an area where Civ5 could still make an enormous improvement. The prestige of the series as a celebration of civilization could easily be enhanced by an expanded and more visible civilopedia. The use of great composers from history in Civ4 was already a step in the right direction. If Firaxis can afford it, I would love to see the return of Civ2-style civilopedia photographs and movies. Watching the Civ2 pyramids movies still puts me in awe in a way that the Civ4 pyramids movie doesn't even come close to.

As an easy way to make the civilopedia more visible, they should bring back the "show civilopedia text" option from Civ1. It would automatically put the civilopedia entry on the screen whenever you discover a new tech, create a great person (they need civilopedia entries), build a unit or building or meet a civ for the first time. When I want to concentrate on gameplay I could still turn this off or customize it, but the option would be an excellent method of bringing the civilopedia as the link to real history and all its wealth to the player's (and reviewer's) attention.

All of this sounds like a lot of work, but being the history lovers that they are, the Firaxis people might even have fun expanding this aspect of the game. It wouldn't turn Civilization into the perfect classroom tool and it would not improve gameplay at all, but it would improve the game atmosphere by magnitudes.

Verrucosus

[Livingston]

Well, just a guess, but i think the lack of american history in your classes is not only due to you being german, but more specifically, you being eastern german, if it was in Leipizig you went to school and depending on when it was. Near Hamburg, in the 90´s, i was taught about the american war of indepence, albeit the official version, that misses most of the important points of it, and more in english class than in historty class actually. But i could imagine, that this wasnt a topic in the GDR really and that shortly after the annexation (which it was really), there might have been a regional lack of teachers for it...

No! Born and went to school in former west germany ;-)

My teacher at school was a big fan of Louis XIV...so learned about the "Sun King" a whole year...

[Supr49er]

My own kids learned from the original Colonization, and the new one is probably even better.