Game On

Posted by Lindsey at 1:14 PM

I’m Lindsey Whitton Christ, the new Insideschools staff writer. Although I am new to the Insideschools team, I have used both the blog and the website for years, first as a social studies teacher at IS 143 and then as a journalism student at Columbia. I am thrilled to begin contributing!

On a visit to PS 183 on the Upper East Side this week, I watched a group of excited fifth graders distress the edges of the paper on their own pioneer diaries, and I was reminded of my favorite computer game as a child, Oregon Trail. The students were undoubtedly so enthusiastic (they were falling all over each other to tell me everything they had learned about westward expansion) because the project let them imagine that they were pioneers experiencing the trail. The computer game had allowed me to do the same thing – although on a clunky 1980s Apple computer it was hardly the degree of computer simulation we are now used to.

While computer games can be a distraction, they can also be a great tool for learning. With social studies, computers can help students to model life in the past and understand social history. Sandra Day O’Connor has even gotten in on the game. My seventh graders would have loved to use the website the former justice is helping develop about the American justice system. My sixth graders each spent a short time on computers doing an activity on mummification and then they talked about what they learned for weeks. And I know several, otherwise mature, adults who would never admit that they occasionally stay up late creating civilizations on their computer.

During summer vacation when it’s too hot to go outside, which games do you encourage your children to play? And which (be honest) do you like to play with them?

Give your kid -- and another kid -- a laptop

Posted by Philissa at 5:39 PM

An Insideschools reader pointed me to a special promotion going on next month by the creators of the XO Computer, formerly known as the "$100 laptop," a few-frills machine developed with the goal of making inexpensive computers available to children in the developing world. For two weeks in November, if you buy one of the computers (a fully loaded laptop at $400), the company will send a second computer to a child in a developing country. Except for the two weeks beginning Nov. 12, the laptops are not available for general purchase.

The computers don't run Windows or have a DVD player, but David Pogue, the Times' tech reporter, calls the laptop "amazing" and "a total kid magnet." He notes that the computers use little energy, have a long-lasting battery, and can recharge using solar power. Users can also access and tinker with the code for all of the pre-installed programs; there's a word program, a web browser, music programs, and games, among others. Especially if you are shopping for a budding programmer this holiday season, the XO laptop might make an excellent, socially-conscious gift. (And your donation to the One Laptop Per Child Foundation is tax-deductible, as well.)

Do you have a tip on something we should profile here? Let me know in the comments or by email.