Civilization gets kudos for educational value
by Alan Rose 
{ Apr 3rd 2006 at 2:55PM }
Planet Civilization has posted an
article highlighting the educational value of Sid Meier's popular strategy series. The games are noted for their
geography-honing skills and interactive decision making tasks that provide kids with levels of engagement and direct
feedback not found in textbooks. In response to similar write-ups of the Civ series, developer Firaxis has
launched Teacher Features, an online resource inviting
educators to share their experiences with video game-based curricula.A certain shareholder of publisher Take-Two Interactive might be interested in knowing that the company he's invested in isn't all blood and guns.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
32_Footsteps @ Apr 3rd 2006 3:16PM
My favorite part of Civilization was the historical truth in that experienced hard-scrabble settlers had a one in 36 chance of taking out a fully-armored battleship. It's that kind of realism that needs to be in our schools.
All joking aside, the series did have a great way of teaching roughly how civilizations develop. However, for teaching anything about how specific civilizations acted, it wasn't so good. Seriously, I could see the Kaiser being a bit pushy and the like. But Gandhi was always such a hard-ass in those games.
SickNic @ Apr 3rd 2006 3:26PM
My social studies class in High School used to have us play CIVI for the last half/hour of class in the last quarter. We had to write a report on it and everything. It was pretty cool, and people paid more attention because it was a game too.
Maybe with this day in age with problems like ADD, videogames could really be used to reach kids and have education actually be interesting and fun...
Darth Pixel @ Apr 3rd 2006 3:26PM
Let's forget about the fact you can start your civilization in 4000 BC with Roosevelt as your leader.
TankRamp @ Apr 3rd 2006 5:14PM
My middle school had the "Downingtown Educational Enrichment Program" for kids with IQs over 140. The class basically gave students free reign to pursue whatever interests them, as long as they could validate it's educational value. I spent a full period every day for about half a year playing Civilization III.