So, I have just finished playing "Death in Rome," A murder-mystery whodunit focusing around the death of one Tiberius Claudius Eutychus in Rome in the year 80 A.D. (or C.E. for those who prefer the newer system). SPOILER ALERT: Poor Tiberius died not of foul play, but of malaria, as is evidenced, by among other things, the mosquito bite mark on his neck, the evident blood letting on his arm, and the presence of honeysuckle in the room, all of which indicate a treatment for malaria was underway. The cool things about the game however, and where it proves useful, is in the game mechanics- you have limited amount of time, and every time you choose to investigate something in the room, the timer reduces by a little bit (to be honest I didn't pay too close attention to exactly how much time you lost per object.) Once you were investigating whatever object it was which struck your fancy, you had the opportunity to ask for more information from several modern experts, along with a panel of three witnesses, to better help you understand what you were looking at, and give you more historical background knowledge.
The verdict? It was hoakey, it was cheesy, but at the same time, it was kind of fun, and I know that at least for the moment, I now remember that honeysuckle was used to treat various illnesses in ancient Rome, a fact which I did not know before. In addition, I could see a game like this being very useful for younger players, as it forces them to make decisions about what to spend their time instigating, helping to hone discrimination skills. That being said, I feel as though the utility of a game like this one is relatively limited to fact acquisition (which is not in and of itself a bad thing; without having basic factual information, it becomes difficult to move on to higher order thinking.) However, I think I would put a game like this into the same category as something like a "Math Blasters" (a Windows 3.1 math game I still fondly remember), insofar as it really only teaches basic knowledge and skills, without going too far into addressing higher order thinking.
All that aside though, not a bad game for something written by the BBC. ;)
Your description of the game is hilarious! When I was reading about the game, I was wondering what kinds of things that they were learning. As far as I know, since I have not played the game, it seems like it would be a game geared towards social studies, but what are students really learning about ancient Rome? They may learn better decision making, but I also think that it is important that educational games should build upon students' knowledge base. That being said, it is also important to foster important life skills in our students too, and maybe thats why this game could be effective.
ReplyDeleteMark, this game sounds awesome, actually, but maybe that's because we're cut from a similar History cloth. I love "simple" games for students, primarily because I think they encourage repetition. I know that for myself, if a game is too complicated or strays from its purpose, I'll put it down and won't pick it back up. "Death in Rome" sounds like a game I'd play a few times - and I think students would too. I can absolutely see this in a Social Studies environment and am glad you wrote about this in your blog. One common complaint students seem to have about History is that it's "boring", that teachers don't make it exciting, and that it requires a lot of memorization and less higher order thinking. I think games like this, and "Branches of Power" (a game I blogged about earlier) are useful in classrooms and will help students find the subject matter more engaging.
ReplyDeleteThis game sounds awesome! Like you said, I'm not sure how useful it is in the classroom beyond just some basic facts. But to be honest, I think this would even be useful to adults like me, who maybe did not pay enough attention in history class, and want to brush up on some basic knowledge in a fun way. I might go try it out!
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure I would put this game into the “Math Blasters” category. Or at least, this kind of game which focuses on factual knowledge rather than higher level thinking is more suited to a discipline where drilling can be helpful in figuring out problems quickly. For example, knowing that 3x12 is 36 is going to come up more often than the fact that honeysuckle was used to treat malaria in Ancient Rome. For that reason, being able to “just know” that the answer is 36 is potentially very helpful, while this game is a little more of a novelty item.
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