Finally, official confirmation that I have the best job in the world…and that the hours and hours I’ve wasted spent playing Civilization IV have some redeeming social purpose…I got to play Civ IV in class!
I recently helped Nina Bakisian run a session of her graduate seminar on Games and Simulations in Learning. Ever since one researcher used Civilization to successfully engage inner-city middle school students, there’s been renewed interest in using commercial games for education (instead of the ‘educational games’ I had to play as a kid, like Oregon Trail).
vs. 
In class, we downloaded the free demo (good for 100 turns) and jumped right in–the tutorial is too slow for most. But with a bit of coaching, people had no problem setting up their first 2-3 city civilizations, choosing buildings and technologies, and encountering other civilizations. At the end, I showed them the editor which allows you to change anything in your world, and how to create and download new scenarios for students to play. I actually thought at the end, hey, this could work.
I hate to admit my nerdy qualities, but the original Sid Meiers CIV is my favorite game of all time… closely followed by Age of Empires (Age of Kings)…I like to keep it old skool.
Actually I had no idea what this game was about since I rarely play game. But after reading the provided link of this game, I feel this kind of game should be applied to educational system more. I took Western Civilization class before and it was so hard for me to clearly understand the materials. So I think this game is definitely a useful tool to help students in absorbing the materials and being creative.