Video games

Video games have many negative and positive aspects. This webquest will explore those aspects of video games and pose the question; What is the difference between what we consider a positive video game, and what we consider a negative video game? You will be asked to formulate your own opinion and create a video game that could be helpful to students your age, instead of the many harmful video games that plague students.

History and effects of video games

This website will provide you with a brief history of video games and with a general idea of how violent video games can effect children as opposed to educational video games. As you read through this, think to yourself; How can I make an intriguing video game, while still keeping it educational? Also, it could be helpful to ask people that do play video games what they like about them, and what they dislike about them.

Controversy

This website talks about controversy in video games. It is important for you to understand this controversy surrounding video games, so you can reach a decision. As you read through this think about what an appropriate video game for students would entail. Once again, how can you make the game intriguing, while keeping it educational? This site is also very helpful, offering many studies done about video games in the class room. You should navigate through it. When looking at it, think about the statistics they provide, and why it makes it important that video games should be incorporated into the classroom. Also, think about the examples they give, and how you could tweak them to make your game perfect.

Creating a video game

First, get into groups of 3. Your task at hand, with your group, is to "create" an educational video game appropriate for students your age, that deals with any core subject of your choosing. By "Create" I mean I want your group to think through the process of creating a video game, and come up with ideas on paper. Your goal is to come up with a interesting video game that also teaches students about a core subject taught in school. You are to hand in a short paper describing your individual work (each group member must hand in their own paper, detailing their work) and also be prepared to give a short presentation (three to five minutes) in front of the class dealing with your video game. The presentation should get students involved. Making a power point presentation is required. Nothing fancy, I feel it is the best way for you to illustrate the ideas of your video game. Feel free to get creative!

Group member 1 - Your personal task will be paying special attention to the plot and detail of the game. Just because this is an educational video game does not mean it can't be interesting. Develop the game through characters while still sticking to the education portion.

Group member 2 - Your personal task will be creating the visual portion of the actual video game. What will the setting look like? What will the characters look like? Obviously pick your most artistic group member for this.

Group member 3 - Your personal task will be creating how your groups subject of choice will work into the game. Will you be making a documentary type game of the civil war? How can you make it work with the plot?

Obviously there needs to be a lot of working together done by the group.Your personal tasks can't be completed properly without working together. Feel free to help each other out in any way possible. Assigning personal tasks is just a way I can keep track of your individual work. As a group you need to make a power point presentation that combines all these elements successfully. This is where all of your individual work gets combined.

Teacher help

When assigning this to your students, there a few things you need to keep in mind. This project is intended for high school students because it involves deep thinking about taking something students know and love and making in into something educational. Students should learn (I hope) cooperative skills. Working in a group is always hard and takes good social skills to make it all go over smoothly. Students should learn what it means to make and give a good presentation, "creating" a video game is all a medium to do this through. Remember, the end goal is for students to give a stimulating lecture to fellow students, no necessarily about making the best video game ever. Before beginning this quest, students should already have knowledge about making and giving a presentation. Also, they should have some experience with working in groups. They will also need experience and knowledge with working with power point. You should give your students a fair amount of computer time, about 1 to 2 hours I would estimate. They need to be able to fully explore the links provided. Additionally they will need time to create a power point presentation, nothing fancy, just the basics of their video game. Grading is always tricky. For this project you could have each group member grade the others on their overall effectiveness in group. Did they all do equal work? For your actual grading, see how well they do on the idea of creating a video game, and how well they presented it to the class. An "A" would be an amazing idea and a great presentation. A "B" would be a good idea and a good presentation. A "C" with be average with respects to both. And a "D" or lower is a group that you could see did not try hard or work together.