[blog] High school students blog about Ayiti in the classroom
Innovative educator Brandt Schneider takes his students online and supports them to blog about. Recently, they played our game Ayiti.
Here is one of their numerous blogs about the experience, this one from Rachel:
"I wasn't playing the Ayiti Unicef Game for that long, but what i did and saw and was really awesome. I think this types of game can really be a great educational tool. I think that it's a great way to get information across and educate people on important issues, like poverty. It's really a good idea; it attracts students/kids because its a game and it's not as boring as listening to a teacher talk about it. You feel like your getting involved, and you really are contributing to the process and trying to keep these people alive and healthy. It allows a sort of hands-on approach where students will actually be engaged and involved and active participants. It allows everyone to be in control and work at their own pace. Basically, it is pretty much appealing and interesting to everybody as opposed to a traditional classroom setting. Another cool thing about this game in particular, was that it also really made you think, as in brainstorm and try to be creative and come up with ideas that would be most beneficial to their survival, health, happiness. Even in just the beginning where it asks whether you want your strategy or plan to be based on happiness, health, money, etc. it's allowing you to choose your own course and makes you really ponder what you think would really help. Everything from school, to supplies, to homes, to food was up to you. It seemed even more useful than a regular game without a purpose.""Also, this is a great way to get issues out there that aren't really talked about, or are hard to talk about/sensitive. It's a great way to get people to become more knowledgable about issues facing our world. I think that a lot of different organizations should come up with this type of thing and schools should really embrace it. This way, we could all gain awareness, thereby increasing volunteer work, support, and contributions to organizations and causes. It would be awesome to raise a generation as a knowledgable, active participant in the worlds ever-going strive for peace and happiness."
Read the full post here.
