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

notesfrompoland.com

21–30 of 135 posts

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

#22
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.

>That's just semantics

No its not, its about learning howto think about war/extremism/politics and how it influences a society, its NOT a math game like Midnight Rescue. That is why it is on a READING list and not on a Math-Learning plan.

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

#23
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I mean, reading / playing witcher you'd get better morale / class diversification understanding than reading Bible or Illiad, Shakespeare is definetely not for school readings, if you're not interested in the actual literature that book has no value in your life.

I, personally, love reading books. But forcing that material to 12-18 and saying read these classic ones just pushes back youth from reading at all. You either move forward and adapt with the current generation or you try to force old generation habits and slowly curse on the result.

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

#24
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.

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…

Thanks for sharing that beautiful story of yours.

But again i thinks that's a first-timer having a game to understand War/History and Society (in a war situation). Sure games existed as playful math/engineering(FSims)/Programming helper and so on...but not in that context.

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

#25

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.

Thanks, i think exactly the same about it.

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

#26
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Not to start a flame war over book choice but forcing kids to read the Bible, Homer's Iliad, and Shakespeare are probably what is causing such marked disinterest in the first place. There are so many interesting and valuable works of writing, fiction and non-fiction, that can captivate and entertain modern children that aren't unapproachable tomes translated from ancient, dead languages, or written in Iambic Pentameter.

One of the first plays I read that actually interested me in Theater was Waiting for Godot. Reading The Stranger in high school exposed me to so many new and complex ideas. Even extremely recent books like "Something that May Shock and Discredit You" by Daniel M. Lavery or "Trick Mirror" by Jia Tolentino are fascinating works of the modern American Canon. I'm not Polish but I'm sure there are equally relevant works in Polish.

If you think kids just prefer to watch a "movie based on a book" maybe stop making them read boring books that truly lack lots of meaningful relevance to their lives today.

And seriously, stop making kids read The Bible as a literary lesson. Nothing made me dis-engage in school like being told "I know you're Jewish and this feels like proselytizing, but I promise, this is purely a lesson in literature, nothing more". That is proven to be a lie when King James's edition is selected over an English translation of the Torah, and when no other non-Christian religious texts are selected for literary evaluation...

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

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How many times you had to read the article to understand it?

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

#28

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…

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

Maybe your are halfway truth your thinking WHY it's actually a interesting decision....but just halfway...

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

#29
post #18

I've had this game sitting in my backlog for months. I've got a few days off work this week so need to give it a shot. I was never sure looking at videos and screenshots what sort of game it actually is.

Nothing that new in terms of gameplay, but the art style and the background story (inspired in real conflicts) are something else

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

#30
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.

I was recently in Poland again and wanted to buy some books for my father who lives in Germany. Man...they are expansive! What happened there??

No wonder there are so many illegal sources for epubs.

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