Quick Tips on Introducing MH to Students

Just got back from watching students play the game at Salem State College.  Professor Chris Mauriello was the first person to use MAKING HISTORY in the classroom.  Several years later, it’s great to see how much he–and we–have learned about introducing the game to students and integrating it into their learning.

With that in mind, here are some quick tips:

Tell students about the game!
Students are naturally excited to play a game in class.  As the instructor, you can harness that excitement–get students familiar with the game and with the history.

When you tell students that they’ll be playing a game, you’ll find out which students are “gamers”–fluent in playing and understanding games.  Take advantage of their skills!  Let them (let all students) play the game early and often; when it comes time to officially play, gamers can be a real help to their peers and to you. 

Tutorial & Sandbox Play
The students at Salem State were excited and ready to play.  Chris Mauriello was comfortable with the game world and knew what themes and challenges he wanted his students to address.  The secret?  Before playing as a class, they all played the tutorial.  The 30 minute tutorial explains the basic actions of MAKING HISTORY.  For homework, students completed the tutorial and played a few turns as their countries.  This “sandbox play”–playing a few turns with no expectations or pressure–helped them further explore and understand the game world. 

Handouts
The tutorial shows students how to do things.  The handouts help them understand why.  Country descriptions and briefing points succinctly tell students about their countries’ short and long-term goals.  The students at Salem State received their country handouts before playing the game.  With their professor, they discussed their country goals and anaylzed what first steps they should take to acheive them.  You can find the handouts on our website.

What are your suggestions for integrating new technologies and new materials into a class?   Do you have any specific tips for introducing MAKING HISTORY?

Early adopter of Making History

Dave McDivitt is a high school social studies teacher (and football coach) in Converse, Indiana. He learned about MAKING HISTORY at the 2004 NCSS conference and became one of our first beta testers, evaluating early versions of the game. You can visit his blog here.

He has a whole section dedicated to MAKING HISTORY, and you can read about his game experiences in January 2007 and March/April 2006. To read them in chronological order, you can start on page 4.

Dave’s postings are great–they range from practical “how tos” for teaching with games to his big picture thoughts on why games teach. We hope to have him as a “guest blogger” on this blog soon . . .

Welcome!

Welcome to the Making History, Teaching History blog!  Here, the designers of Making History and the teachers and students who play Making History can come together and discuss teaching with games, teaching with technology, and teaching with Making History. 

My name is Sarah Grafman, and I’m the content producer and educational designer for Making History.  I have a BA in European History, and an EdM in Technology in Education (although the program is now called Technology, Innovation, and Education).   

I expect I’ll be making all the initial posts, but this is a group blog–we want you to join the conversation!  Please leave your comments and questions and, if you decide you’d like to be a regular poster, let me know and I’ll send you a formal invitation. 

Thanks for finding our blog; I look forward to hearing your thoughts!