Playing to learn: a case study of MITs Revolution Simulation

Russell Francis - Oxford University Department of Educational Studies

Multiplayer role playing games offer new possibilities to support teaching and learning in the humanities. The Revolution simulation, developed as part of MIT’s Education Arcade project, allows students to role play a day-in-the-life of ordinary townsfolk in 18^th century Colonial Williamsburg. The simulation is explicitly designed to allow students to learn about aspects of social history in the pre-revolutionary era. Players are situated in a virtual reconstruction of the town and participate in events leading up to the outbreak of war. This paper reports the findings of a series of workshops held at MIT in the spring 2005 in which the Revolution simulation was used with groups of home schoolers and a group from a local high school to explore the educational potential of this new kind of educational resource. The presentation will include a demonstration of the simulation, a reflective discussion concerning the games based pedagogy that was developed for the workshops and a presentation and critical appraisal of the experiences of pupils who took part in the evaluation.