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Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

notesfrompoland.com

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Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#11
post #10

Interesting move. Sadly kids nowadays (at least in Poland, where I live) don't like reading books and tend to skip even very important titles. This may be a good way to bring some interest in the history via a genuinely entertaining medium.

What do you consider very important titles?

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#12
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats something else, i never saw a Game on a READING-list. And my teacher never told, so now you go to that Apple Lc2 and play some FlightSimulator, 2 good landings or you have to-do it as homework.

That's just semantics, but it certainly happened. It may have been more informal when I was growing up, but you still had to play games like "Midnight Rescue" as part of class work. I do think it is silly to put it on a 'Reading List'. I prefer to create a new category.

[deleted]

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#13

I fail to see why this is news. I had games we played 20 years ago in school which taught me tons of stuff, math blasters for example. Putting a game on a school reading list when there is already 100's of games on there, is not really news. Kind of just seems like a ad than anything else.

also this war of mine isn’t an ‘educational’ game (you would know if you actually read the article)

It is educational in the sense that literature is, putting yourself in someone else's shoes. That's what the humanities do at their best. IMHO it's an excellent example of a novelistic game for just that reason.

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#14

I fail to see why this is news. I had games we played 20 years ago in school which taught me tons of stuff, math blasters for example. Putting a game on a school reading list when there is already 100's of games on there, is not really news. Kind of just seems like a ad than anything else.

also this war of mine isn’t an ‘educational’ game (you would know if you actually read the article)

It is an educational game, if it was something else it wouldn't have been on the list.

Just because it's not classified as an education game does not mean it isn't teaching.

The article clear says

"“Of course, games are already being used in education for teaching maths, chemistry, and developing cognitive abilities, but I don’t think we’ve ever encountered a game being officially included in the educational system on a national level as a school reading,” said Grzegorz Miechowski, CEO of 11 bit studios."

They clearly say there is already games on the list, this is just the first time a game is classified or put into the "reading" category.

Which is cool, but I don't get why this is news beyond being a giant ad.

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#15

I fail to see why this is news. I had games we played 20 years ago in school which taught me tons of stuff, math blasters for example. Putting a game on a school reading list when there is already 100's of games on there, is not really news. Kind of just seems like a ad than anything else.

Give the article a read, or play the game if you have time - it doesn't make sense to compare the qualities of This War of Mine, educational or otherwise, to those of Math Blaster. The fact that it's on a "reading list" should be the first clue. It really is a pretty interesting decision.

Your comment sound better if you where not implying I did not read the article (because I did multiple times).

"It doesn't make sense to compare the qualities of This War of Mine, educational or otherwise, to those of Math Blaster. The fact that it's on a "reading list" should be the first clue. It really is a pretty interesting decision."

Is much better. People take away different things from articles all the time.

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#16
post #3

I fail to see why this is news. I had games we played 20 years ago in school which taught me tons of stuff, math blasters for example. Putting a game on a school reading list when there is already 100's of games on there, is not really news. Kind of just seems like a ad than anything else.

Thats something else, i never saw a Game on a READING-list. And my teacher never told, so now you go to that Apple Lc2 and play some FlightSimulator, 2 good landings or you have to-do it as homework.

One of the most formative classes I took was in middle school- it was a general "engineering" class- we built balsa wood and wax paper airplanes, balsa-wood bridges, learned VB and made tic-tac-toe and backgammon, our teacher got every student copies of Neverwinter Nights and we used NWScript to make mods and learn simple stuff like for-loops. And he had a lab with Stronghold and Microsoft Flight Sim(with controllers) where we could hang out after school and play games together.

I was coming from a background where I wasn't eating every day, the only sport I could afford to do was track- and that was only because the track coach was gracious enough to take me to a running store and buy me shoes, I was spending my nights cleaning office buildings, spending my early mornings getting to school early to shower and cram in my homework for the day before class. I was at a private school, so there was no reduced or free lunch program, and I had a very hard time staying awake in class, except for his class. Partially due to un-diagnosed ADHD and a really terrible home situation.

That class gave me an attainable goal to work towards, and now I'm a programmer today. I had previously relegated my ambitions to simply surviving.

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#17
post #10

Interesting move. Sadly kids nowadays (at least in Poland, where I live) don't like reading books and tend to skip even very important titles. This may be a good way to bring some interest in the history via a genuinely entertaining medium.

What do you consider very important titles?

Not the GP, but I think that there are many such titles, that's why schools in Poland have mandatory reading lists :)

You cannot understand culture and tradition without reading some classics,starting with Bible, Homer's Illiad, or Shakespeare. And of course in Poland we mostly focus on Polish writers. You know, before journalism was invented novels served pretty much the same purpose as newspaper reports - there are the goldmine of information about how Poland looked like back in the day.

Unfortunately, contemporary students prefer to just watch movie based on a book than reading the source material.

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also this war of mine isn’t an ‘educational’ game (you would know if you actually read the article)

It is an educational game, if it was something else it wouldn't have been on the list. Just because it's not classified as an education game does not mean it isn't teaching. The article clear says "“Of course, games are already being used in education for teaching maths, chemistry, and developing cognitive abilities, but I don’t think we’ve ever encountered a game being officially included in the educational system o…

[deleted]

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also this war of mine isn’t an ‘educational’ game (you would know if you actually read the article)

It is an educational game, if it was something else it wouldn't have been on the list. Just because it's not classified as an education game does not mean it isn't teaching. The article clear says "“Of course, games are already being used in education for teaching maths, chemistry, and developing cognitive abilities, but I don’t think we’ve ever encountered a game being officially included in the educational system o…

‘educational’ as in math blasters, so this war of mine is not ‘educational’

given that stream of thought u could also argue civ v or skyrim or any other game is an educational game. why, you are learning something while playing league, right?

it’s pedantic to claim this war of mine is educational when it was clearly meant for a general gaming audience. that is why it being on a reading list is significant.

you should try the game

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