Tong Family

Educational Technology and Life: Serious Games Summit: Sandford on COTS Games in Education. We’ve been looking for education games for kids. It is amazing how few of these there areally are. Not edutainment, but something where you can reallky learn. Here are some that we’ve found. This link by the way is the first that I found through A9’s Icerocket deal that searches through blogs:
* Simcity 4. This really teaches kids about urban development. The first time I played it, I managed to turn a beautiful city into a slum plus a toxic waste dump. For instance, it teaches you that if you put lots of bus stops in and build big avenues then you really have low traffic for a long time. Way cheaper than putting in light rail 🙂
* “Nesta Racing Academy”:http://www.nestafuturelab.org/showcase/racing_academy/racing_academy.htm. This is a simulation that teaches engineers how to build cars and use equations. Free download too.
The other projects the folks at Nexta looked at were:
* The Sims 2 (which can be used to create content)
* Knights of Honor (an RCS game, like AoM)
* Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 (which has a detailed physics engine).
We have the Sims 2, but it is kind of hard to get into if you are a boy (to be frank) and a little too complicated for Grace right now.