Could Amiga games have an educational rôle?

[s2325]

Well, I have enough of Amiga for some time. Parents of disabled kids constantly tell me that their kids should learn, not play silly (Amiga) games. The problem is they liked these games very much and they cried if I tried to use some modern educational software for Windows. I was warned by my boss and I'm not sure what I should do now.

[lilalurl]

Hmmm, not sure if this thread is really the place to dicuss about this but anyway.

Originally Posted by s2325

Well, I have enough of Amiga for some time. Parents of disabled kids constantly tell me that their kids should learn, not play silly (Amiga) games. The problem is they liked these games very much and they cried if I tried to use some modern educational software for Windows. I was warned by my boss and I'm not sure what I should do now.

For the first sentence, is it a personal feeling or because of what you explained after? It is not very clear.


I don't know how much the kids play the game. Perhaps if it is a lot in a day then I understand the concern of the parents.
But I suppose it is not so.


You could try to argue a lot of things in favour of Amiga games.
It would need a bit of research though, to find scientific articles that would deal with those subjects and compile them to support the arguments.


The idea would be more or less to tell the parents that:

- playing is part of the learning process as a whole

- learning purely by itself can saturate the brain and a variety of activities with different degrees of brain stimulation if more efficient that only learning.

Not sure if it was the same in Poland, but in many countries the most prestigious schools in the past (usually military) combined equally intellectual learning and physical activities (not necessarily sports). Give the name of some famous Polish leaders who came from such school.

- say that from talking with colleagues from the whole world (you can lie a bit about EAB ) you have determined that modern educational software are a bit too articificial in their mixing of the learning and playing aspects and usually partially fail in their aims (kids don't really learn and don't really have fun. Don't go too far though so that your boss or whoever bought them is not discredited).

- you can also say that those games help stimulate some skills/brain areas that the kids will probably have never a chance to stimulate in the real life.
You can probably find a lot of studies about the benefits of video games on reflexes, eye-hand coordination etc....

Also, you can argue in favour of things such as the feeling of self-accomplishement. The idea is to tell that by playing and progressing in a game the kids can get involved in something (far away from their daily worries) and have the feeling of succeeding (no matter their handicaps)

- then, if need be, you can tell the parents that you have have played yourself those games during your childhood and that various aspects have helped you to learn (technical skills, memory etc....)



If the climate in your job does not improve on that issue, perhaps you should try to mix Amiga games and modern educational software, at least for a while (until the tension decreases).

[prowler]

I've created a new thread for this discussion. Thanks to both s2325 and lilalurl for the contribution.

[s2325]

Thanks for some ideas. Here is what I'm using: Amy's Fun-2-3 Adventure http://hol.abime.net/3506 Noddy's Big Adventure http://hol.abime.net/992/screenshot games Brian the Lion, James Pond 2, Car-Vup, Great Giana Sisters - they identify that game as 'Mario'. Floppy drive is always set to 'turbo', small kids have no patience for some reason. 'Say' program from WorkBench extras was also usable.

[Mark Wright]

Originally Posted by s2325

Thanks for some ideas. Here is what I'm using: Amy's Fun-2-3 Adventure http://hol.abime.net/3506 Noddy's Big Adventure http://hol.abime.net/992/screenshot games Brian the Lion, James Pond 2, Car-Vup, Great Giana Sisters - they identify that game as 'Mario'. Floppy drive is always set to 'turbo', small kids have no patience for some reason. 'Say' program from WorkBench extras was also usable.

It's admirable and understandable that you have identified some simple concepts to introduce children to computers, and I presume that the examples you have chosen are based on your own experiences from many years ago, but I think it's much more important to use contemporary programs where you can, for several reasons...

I speak as an ex-tutor (not using computer games with kids, but my advice remains the same) and a die-hard Amigan too ;-)

Children like to share their experiences with other kids - who else is going to be aware of the niche, arcane examples you have chosen?

Time has marched on since the heyday of the Amiga's educational range; many more effective ways of teaching have been identified and implemented in (though we hate it) ubiquitous and free Win/Mac software.

Final reason: even if they're enthused by what you show them and want to play the game at home, it will be massively complicated to setup WinUAE and teach them all the steps - like the bad old days - so much so that it could put them off!

Solution: I would put together a short Powerpoint presentation for them describing how computers *used* to be used (with an Amiga bias ;-)) leading up to demonstrating contemporary stuff, if you feel so strongly about it... and then if they care more about the old stuff, they can choose it for themselves.

Just my €0.20

[s2325]

Some ancient but still fun educational titles:
Dont's Shoot That Word [ Show youtube player ]
Ortografia [ Show youtube player ]
Math Mileage [ Show youtube player ]
Heathcliff - Fun With Spelling [ Show youtube player ]
Go Go Garbage Truck [ Show youtube player ]
Blinky [ Show youtube player ]
High Rise [ Show youtube player ]
Homer's Honey Craze [ Show youtube player ]
Wiztype [ Show youtube player ]

[pubzombie]

Hi just to add to the mix -
I teach games design and use Amiga games all the time to reference the value of understanding what has gone before and how influential the Amiga age was/is.
I also deal with serious games design and games for education and games for military training etc -
this guy is a nice place to start to put together arguments for the educational value of all sorts [old and new] of digital games.
http://www.jamespaulgee.com/
PZ