CIV in the Classroom

(Follow-up to the Sept. 1 post)

Using the computer game Civilization in the classroom back in the early ‘90’s was a bit of an adventure, but we learned a lot from the experience and there were several surprises. I used the game in a social psychology course and my history colleague used it in a world history class. We were also teaching computing skills since not all students were computer literate at the time.

Surprise #1: Not all students loved the game as much as the teacher did.

This shouldn’t have been a surprise, but I was so enthusiastic about the activity, I forgot the fundamental principle that students will not always respond identically to any learning activity, particularly one the teacher loves.

Surprise #2: The game proved very difficult for students.

While I thought the game would be challenging, I did not expect it to be terribly difficult and I anticipated the “fun” factor would take care of any difficulty issues. Wrong! Some of my top students told me it was the “hardest” assignment they had ever encountered in college. This led to a lot of reflection on my part as to why the program was so challenging for them and resulted in the development of a new course focusing on critical and creative thinking.

Surprise #3: Male and female students responded very differently to the game.

While there was no overall difference in the ability of male and female students to complete the game successfully, there was (in my class) a significant difference in the degree to which they enjoyed the experience. Most of the male students, even those who struggled a great deal with the game, reported that they enjoyed the activity. However the majority of the female students, even those who did quite well on the activity, indicated that it was not particularly enjoyable. My sense is that they treated it as “just another assignment to complete” and nothing special.

Two interesting side notes to the gender difference issue. I did a faculty workshop with members of my academic division using Civilization shortly after using it in class. After the two hour workshop was completed a colleague tapped my shoulder and told me to look around the room. All the women faculty members had turned off their computers and were in the process of leaving. Most of the men were still engrossed in the game even though the workshop was officially over.

A second related experience occurred when I asked a team member of the Muzzy Lane educational game development company, creators of Making History (a simulation focusing on world politics, economics and warfare during WWII) if he had noticed any gender difference in response to their game. He said that while both males and females seemed to enjoy the simulation they often employed different strategies when playing. The girls tended to make use of the games negotiation tools while the boys’ first response was to “roll out the tanks.”

Now that we know a bit more about gaming preferences we do find that the various genres of games tend to appeal differently to males and females and they may approach the same game in somewhat different ways (as groups of course – there is a lot of individual variability).

Since 1991

We did not continue to use the CIV activity in future semesters, primarily because it was too time consuming as an “add-on” assignment. Getting through the game once took around 12 hours, and one had to play the game several times to really benefit from the experience. We thought that a course with Civilization as a central teaching tool might be viable, but using it as we had was not practical.

Now in its fourth generation Civilization has been used in schools over the years as an educational tool. Most notably, Kurt Squire at the University of Wisconsin has been involved in innovative research using CIV in afterschool programs.