Games for school

[beniki]

My fellow Escapists...

I'm the Senior Teacher at an English language school. Recently, my school spent a lot of money buying up a lot of Xboxes and Kinects for use in the classroom. However, that's about as far as their thinking went.

We have, as of now, the free software that comes with the Kinect. Total language content... nil.

We have an opportunity now to bring video games to the classroom in a big way. I'd rather not have these consoles go to waste as just a cheap gimmick to sell our Summer School. But for that, I need games.

Games that can teach language. Games that can inspire class debates, and thus encourage use of English. Games on the Xbox, and preferably using the Kinect. I need your help.

What games do you recommend?

 

[Erttheking]

Well, this game was the only thing resembling anything that you mentioned that I could find. I cannot comment on the quality in any way though.

http://www.gamestop.com/xbox-360/games/body-brain-connection/89328

 

[beniki]

Huh. Okay, new criteria.

I want party games. Puzzle games. Games where people speak to each other to solve problems. Think Little Big Planet, where you have to work together to solve problems.

Anything where you need to read/listen/speak in English to finish the game.

 

[Guffe]

Take Time Splitters Future Perfect and have a disucssion after co-op about the flow of time and space-time continuum / travelling back and forth in time xD

This idea is brilliant I just can't come up with any games since I didn't play too much xbox...

 

[Able Seacat]

There's a Who wants to be a Millionaire game for the kinect but I don't how well it works.

 

[Evil Smurf]

minecraft is fun and problem solvey

 

[knight steel]

well.....that's.....new?

They didn't really think this through did they,I guess if nothing else you could use it as a reward incentive,get an A+ and you can play xbox during lunch .

But yeah besides doing stuff like that I can't think of any good games that could actually teach English criteria to your student's sorry I couldn't help more >_<

 

[Terramax]

I've heard of one teacher using Myst III: Exile in the classroom. The kids discussed how to solve puzzles, along with writing what they thought about the amazing worlds they saw.

 

[Saregon]

Interesting, I like when schools try new stuff to teach, good on you.

As for games, there is a Trivial Pursuit game which has a couple functions you don't have in the board game, and is very fun, and the multiplayer is excellent.

 

[UniversalRonin]

I know this doesn't help to use your X-Boxes, but you might find games like Diplomacy encourage debate, independent thought, maths, team work, and all sorts of life skills. Other than that, have you considered teaching them C++ and letting them get together in teams to make their own games?

 

[beniki]

But yeah besides doing stuff like that I can't think of any good games that could actually teach English criteria to your student's sorry I couldn't help more >_<

It's really more about practicing using English. I don't expect a student to play something like Gears of War and suddenly know Present Continuous

What I'll be driving at with this tool is encouraging them to play at home on English speaking servers, or being able to play games with people if they go to college in the States or the UK. Not only that, but they'll expoe themselves to a wider variety of language by playing games... particularly if they develop an interest in real world fact games, like Total War.

Interesting, I like when schools try new stuff to teach, good on you.

You should see one of my classes... I've played DnD just to teach Past Simple

Thanks guys, and keep the suggestions coming. The more titles I can throw at my manager, the more budget I can get for this!