ESL etc.

FreePoverty is a new site similar to FreeRice. Students go through a geography quiz, with correct answers raising money for water donations to developing countries. Currently, I haven’t seen any third party validation of the site, so I’m not sure if it is legit or not. The quiz is pretty fun, though. […]

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My interest in videogames as tools for teaching global issues has been waning a bit, but I just saw Sim Sweatshop, a game that attempts to let players experience life in a sneaker sweatshop. Throughout the game, the player is presented with options and situations via pop-up windows. These require reading, and refer […]

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A while back, I posted a bit about Japanese whale “research” that results in the slaughter and consumption of large numbers of whales. Harpooned is a new videogame simulating this. You play the part of a whaler and try to kill as many whales as possible, while avoiding the legal fees associated with […]

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Disaster Watch is a another video game (like Stop Disasters) that deals with natural disaster preparedness. There is a decent amount of reading in the game, particularly in the first level, where the player tries to collect clues about a coming disaster. Level two and three are basically just arcade games, at least […]

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Against All Odds is a game by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. It attempts to simulate what it is like to be a refugee and is newly-available in English. There is a lot of reading involved in the game, so I think it could work well in an English […]

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Here are two more games that could be used with students as part of a global issues activity.
The first is September 12th. While technically not a game, this simulation illustrates the impossibility of peace through violence. It is elegantly simple, and five minutes or so of “playing” time could stimulate interesting discussion on […]

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IFComp 2007 is an interactive fiction competition currently taking place. For those not familiar with the term interactive fiction, think text-based videogames. It’s all free, and all games are now available for download. Voting is open until November 15.
I haven’t had time to look at any of the entries, but […]

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In the course of reading a bit about the organization Games for Change, I found the Xbox 360 Games for Change Challenge. The competition challenges college students to come up with global warming themed videogames, the best of which will be awarded cash prizes. Winners are also eligible for possible inclusion as a download […]

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mp3
This week I discuss four global issues video games: Stop Disasters, What Would You Do?, Food Force, and Darfur is Dying. I reviewed Stop Disasters a few days ago and plan to review the others in more detail soon.
In the meantime, here’s a brief rundown:
Stop Disasters - Students attempt to protect a village from […]

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Stop Disasters was made as part of the U.N.’s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. In it, players attempt to prepare a location for one of five different natural disasters using a combination of construction and education. In addition to the game, the website provides a collection of additional resources for teaching about natural […]

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