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Being a humanities teacher, I had intentionally selected games that were free, online, and specific to the humanities subject matter. I included the title, game analysis, an icon/screen shot representing each game, and a reflection for each game write-up. If you would like to try out any of these games yourself, please click the images.

The Mummy Maker

Curriculum Connection: This game easily fits into the grade 6 World Studies curriculum about ancient civilizations, namely ancient Egypt.

Game Analysis: You are an embalmer’s assistant and you follow through the task of mummifying Ramose. The game takes you through the process in order, selecting right tools, using right materials, putting away the correct organs of the body, etc. The Pharaoh’s cat (Miuty) is there to give hints throughout the game (only 3 though). If you lose the game, Ramose’s body will decay and will be left behind by his soul. His body and soul will be vulnerable to demons in the underworld.

Reflection: This game will easily capture the attention of the typical 6^th grader. The game is simple, infused with content, and does a good job drawing up the story line. The graphics are of high quality and the game concept and rules are easy to grasp (without the long, text-bombarded pre-game instructions). Although game is not for the hardcore action gamer, it is a way cooler way to get kids to learn about mummification rather than watching a video or reading from the textbook.

Mesoamerican Ballgame

Curriculum Connection: In grade 7, World Studies (unit 3), Latin American geography and ancient Latin American civilizations are covered. Although Mesoamerican Ballgame is not specifically found in the curriculum guide or indicators, it can still be considered as cultural study.

Game Analysis: The player is on the “Deer” team, and as the ball is released, the player is asked a question about the Mesoamerican ballgame. The three players on the “Jaguars” team serve as multiple choice answer bearers as their quote bubbles display a choice of answers to the question that is asked. If you answer correctly, your team scores, and you answer incorrectly, the other team scores and you get booed by the crowd.

Reflection: After exploring the website from which the game is hosted, I now understand the purpose of this “interactive” game – to serve as an assessment to the content that is presented from the ballgame website. The introduction screen, color, and images are beautiful, but the game itself is a glorified selected response mechanism that affords no higher-level thinking, element of choice (other than selecting the correct answer choice), or even entertainment. I would say that the website that hosts the game offers more to the kids than the game itself because the website is awesome. The information piece of the website has as much interaction as the game does, if not more, with images and design of professional quality.

The Emperor Game

Curriculum Connection: In grade 6, World Studies (unit 2), ancient Greek and Roman civilizations are studied. The focus of the unit is political system and the history of democracy.

Game Analysis: The game allows you to pick the role of any 3 of the emperors displayed on the screen. The player is told various situations that have happened in the life of the selected emperor and each scenario requires an “action” or decision by the emperor. The players use their own reason and respond to the scenarios, and after each decision, the game informs you of the validity or failure of your decision as well as telling you what the emperor chose to do in real life.

Reflection: The game has simple functions, but contains much reading. There is no action involved other than the snippets of video clips that are in motion on the side of your screen depicting the scenario that you are deciding on. I like how the game portrayed it more as “what kind of emperor would you be” test rather than “you got the question wrong” approach. Unfortunately, I see many students becoming quickly bored with this “game” as it is very somber one where you click response choices.

The Boston Massacre Files

Curriculum Connection: The Boston Massacre is taught in Unit 2 of 8^th Grade U.S. History and is revisited in high school. The social studies classes have been moving towards “Document-Based-Questions” where students are to interact with primary sources to understand context, content, and bias.

Game Analysis: The game begins with a “Mission Impossible” theme where the gamer is an agent that is investigating a case. The gamer will be equipped with an “Image Scrutinizer” (displaying primary source images and interview transcripts) and a timeline (which displays the historic events that precede and follow the Boston Massacre to help students understand the context). Players will have access to dozens of primary source documents to help with their investigation and provides choices to investigate certain parts of the Massacre at a time. As questions appear on the screen, the gamer is required to use the primary source documents to correctly answer each prompt (which the gamer must type in, usually one or two-word responses).

Reflection: I appreciate this game because it has the player interacting with primary sources and have them use information and image literacy to complete the task of the game. The game not only teaches and reinforces content, but it has the gamer actively learning and using Social Studies skills to attain knowledge.

Mission US

Curriculum Connection: The American Revolution is taught in 8th grade US History.

Game Analysis: This game has excellent graphics, elaborate interactive scenes and maps, missions or tasks to accomplish, a vocabulary bank that allows you to store new words that you come across from the game.

Reflection: This game is seriously impressive. Each new scene has people and items that you click to find more information. I told myself that I wouldn't spend more than 10 minutes to this game, but found myself completely enamored by the beautiful graphics, running into various characters in the story "accidentally", clicking and reading everything on the screen. I did not even realize that I was learning so much simply by participating in this role playing game.

Death in Sakkara

Curriculum Connection: Ancient Egypt is taught in 6th grade, World Studies (Unit 1). The social studies skill set of using the text to derive meaning is also achieved in this game.

Game Analysis: From the beginning the game captures the player's attention with dramatic music and its comic book style design of the characters and setting. The entire format of the game is like a comic book where the player is brought to a setting and is interacting with another character through quote bubbles. The player is actively involved in the conversation as they can choose from a selection of predetermined responses, which requires the gamer to be attentive to the conversations. A "travel journal" is kept where the game puts hints into the journal notes and entries and the player can refer to them for help. The overarching mission is to find a museum curator's daughter who has mysteriously disappeared in Egypt during one of her excavation trips.

Reflection: Having played games that were easily mastered, playing this game was a refreshing challenge. The game is challenging and keeps the player accountable for the information they have gathered and advancing into the game. If the player has not been attentive and has missed important details, the game does not advance and the player is responsible for using the clues in the journal and clues around the setting. This may be difficult to do as there will be much text to read throughout the game. Although the curriculum connection is there as far as teh content goes, the skill set required to play the game may be too advanced for the average 6th grader. Again, a challenging game, but it will be well received by the high-level thinker.

Hunt the Ancestor

Curriculum Connection: This game seems to utilize a Social Studies skill set of engaging in "field work" and collecting data and making and recording observations. This also connects to the broader skill of being able to manage and operate their activities on a budget.

Game Analysis: Compared to the other games, the graphics and images are not captivating in any way. The concept, however, is original in that the player is given a budget of 7200 pounds and limited time to find the archaeological site and excavate it.

Reflection: The washed out colors and amateur-like images already had me thinking about quitting the game. The best part of the game is the managing monetary resources because it provided the element of choice for the player. This made me be very intentional about selecting certain action items over others. The game was very linear and 2-dimensional (literally and figuratively speaking).

Life in the Iron Age

Curriculum Connection: Perfect for grade 6, World Studies at the beginning of unit 1 when we get into early human settlement and civilizations.

Game Analysis: Life in the Iron Age utilizes classroom procedure of introducing a new concept by having an anticipatory set/pre-assessment following with an animation that instructs the player of how the ancients used to live. From building fires to weaving clothes and making bread, the program sets up an interactive setting with common objects and resources that were used during that time and has the player to collect the materials necessary for a certain task, explains how that item was used to fulfill the task of meeting the basic needs of the early humans, and shows an animation of how the objects come together and were used.

Reflection: There is no winning or losing in this game. Actually, the word "game" is misnomer as it is more of a tool that engages the player in interactive, electronic learning. I think this is a perfect example of combining 21st century tools with instruction in that the player learns by interacting with the digital environment, allowing them to learn at their own pace, getting immediate feedback on their actions, and providing a holistic coverage of the information in the form of images and animation. Life in the Iron Age is definitely not to be used alone as it does not have enough of the entertainment element to keep them invested for long, but could be very useful and fun way for students to use as an interactive resource along with a capture sheet.

Who Wants to be a Cotton Millionaire?

Curriculum Connection: In grade 7, World Studies (unit 4), the topic of study is economic systems (traditional, market, mixed, command economies). This simulation covers the market economy aspect.

Game Analysis: The game play is simple -- make economic decisions that will bring profit to your investor. The game usually provides 2 - 3 choices during decision-making time of where to locate the business, who to hire, and how to maintain the business. One wrong decision will be game over.

Reflection: I can definitely see this game as a tool to be used before diving in to the content of the unit. Students will be able to experiment and take risks in trying to grow the business. The only captology of the game is being able to see the consequences of the player's decision and not necessarily in improving the business. I was able to see a pattern of success when I aligned my decisions with the historical patterns and events of that time period (example - knowingly selecting women and children as the work force instead of men despite the modern context of child labor being outlawed in the US). The most valuable piece of this game is that it provides a reference and common language between the teacher and the students as new concepts, terminology, and historical events are brought up later in the unit.

Trading Around the World

Curriculum Connection: Directly connects with grade 6, World Studies (unit 3) the economics unit. Concepts of interdependence, natural resources, market economy are main components of the game.

Game Analysis: Trading Around the World is the perfect balance between providing maximum choice for the player while having a structured arena to make meaning of the decisions that are made. The player selects the country that they will be representing. They are given a starting amount of $7000 and crude resources that will be purchased by other traders. All trade and economic decisions will be set at the pace of the player. Whether the player chooses to make a trade every minute or every hour, the game begins and stops at the player’s whim.

Reflection: This game is awesome. The graphics may be unimpressive, but the concept of trading and negotiating price with other countries is cool enough to overshadow the most basic interface design. This game will be the perfect closure to the economics unit. The entire class will chart their profits and negotiated prices as the teacher will determine the most successful international trader. The class can set the parameters and criteria for what it means to be the most successful trader (example – over $20,000 profit, at least 5 units of each resource around the world).

Renaissance: Become a Spice Trader

Curriculum Connection: This game is connected to the grade 7, World Studies (unit 4) curriculum about the Renaissance and the emergence of trade and colonization.

Game Analysis: Although the website states that the game was published in 2011, the game looks outdated. The game begins with the player being a space trader and they select routes to travel and items to trade around the world. The game play is similar to Who Wants to be a Cotton Millionaire where the player makes economic decisions to yield the higher revenue with the exception of the difference of historical time period.

Reflection: The theme of the Renaissance and the idea of spice trade has much potential, but this game does not do justice for such rich content and game idea. I think this game has a potential to be great if there was more visual appeal with better images, use of flash, and a creative way of communicating much information in fewer words and numbers. The design of the game unflatteringly reveals the simplicity of the game.

Pyramid Builder

Curriculum Connection: This game is connected to the grade 6, World Studies (unit 1) curriculum about the ancient Egyptians, specifically pertaining to pyramids.

Game Analysis: You begin as a vizier who is commissioned to build a pyramid for Pharaoh. The first order of events is to select the location of the pyramids, the materials, and various types of human resources to complete the project. Once the design specifications have been made, there’s a bit of action play of maneuvering the boat up the Nile River using the letters on the keyboard (“A”, “Z”, “N”, and “M”) to direct the boat. If you do not reach your destination by the time of the Pharaoh’s death, it is game over – the project will be abandoned, and the spirit of the Pharaoh will be vulnerable and lost.

Reflection: The planning process of building the pyramid develops captology as it creates a sense of anticipation for seeing the final product. The player has choices to pick everything from the location of the pyramid to the food that the workers eat. The end of the game is a bit anticlimactic as you would never see the final product and the effects of the decisions you made during the design and planning stage. The success of the game is contingent on the last “level” where the player is responsible for safely navigating the boat full of building materials to the final destination. I had to play this game 3 times because I failed at the boat maneuvering twice and chose fertile land as a place to build (which was a bad idea as the Nile flooded the farm area and was unsuitable for construction) only to read about the pyramid that I had built and not actually seeing it.

Many of my 10 requirements for the 21st century teacher overlaps with simply putting into effect good teaching practices -- engaging lessons, positive relationships, frequent monitoring of progress, skill building, assessing the objective. To dispel preconceived notions of teachers who are apprehensive about so much "change" in the classroom with new hardware and such, I think it's important for all teachers to know that technology does not replace instruction.

I am probably preaching to the choir, so without further ado, here is my list. Teachers should...

1.) be familiar with using Microsoft applications (i.e. Word, PowerPoint, Excel). This is the least we expect of our students, so we should expect the same for ourselves.

2.) be able to model and provide guided and individual practice as they introduce new tools or assignments

3.) create engaging lessons that require students to apply their knowledge and understanding at different levels (analyze, synthesize, evaluate, etc.). Technology should be more than just another platform for reiterating what they've learned. Technology in it of itself is innovation, and we should create tasks that require our students to be innovative, collaborative, inquisitive, and think critically in order to solve problems.

4.) create a blog or maintain a space where students and parents can go to find more information. Montgomery County Public Schools may not have approved the use of blogs in the classroom yet, but they still provide us with Edline, or an online platform that allows teachers to upload or post daily assignments, links, news, and calendar events. It's no use creating a blog at the beginning of the year and it being stagnant all year, so getting into the habit of actively maintaining an online space is a good place to start.

5.) cite sources when you borrow an image or get information from a certain resource. I haven't memorized the formula to citing a web source, but to include a blurb or mention it in class will demonstrate your expectations for the kids when they complete a technology assignment. Hopefully, this will become a part of their routine for future assignments.

6.) be risk-takers. Plan opportunities for student-to-student discourse in your lessons, allowing instruction to be less centralized on the teacher and more on the student. Isn't that what 21st century instruction all about?

7.) embrace technology in your personal life. Try using social bookmarking, RSS feeds, email, social networking tools, online search engines, etc. more regularly so that you can attest to the efficacy of technology and be confident for when you teach it to the kids, their parents, and other teachers.

8.) collaborate with other teachers. See what other teachers are doing to incorporate technology and share with them how you are using it. Technology seems a lot less intimidating (and even inspiring) if we see other people using it.

9.) be familiar with the technology and hardware that is already in their classroom. Computers, scanners, Promethean boards, laptops, Activslates/Activotes, DVD players, digital camcorders, and digital cameras have already been purchased. Let's harness the power of these technologies and use it to capture the attention and cerebral space of our students!

10.) be informed and aware. Whether it be emerging technology or world events, the 21st century teacher is skillful and knowledgeable.