iPod Touch Gaming For Learning

Character Creation in SIMS 3 on the iPod Touch

Recently, one of the middle schools in the district, Cape Fear Middle, purchase a classroom set of Apple’s iPod Touch.  The results of their use, so far, have been incredible.  Part of the reason is that we’re using them in ways that allow us to do things that we couldn’t normally do in the classroom.  For example, students in Craig Lawson’s 7th Grade Language Arts class are playing the popular game, SIMS 3.  Their game play is the foundation for all sorts of creative projects.  Students began by playing a SIM and used their virtual characters’ characteristics, motivations, and personality to write about the same in fiction literature.  The project has also been the foundation for writing about point-of-view, with students’ creative writing focused on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-person writing.  This week, students will be telling stories in the form of web-comics based on their SIMS’ virtual lives.  If you’d like to learn more about the project (and future game-based projects we’ll be doing with the iPod Touch), visit the project wiki at:  http://ipodgamesforlearning.pbworks.com.  You can take a look at Mr. Lawson’s students’ work in the project at his classroom wiki:  http://grizzlygrammar.pbworks.com/

-Lucas