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I work as a at a school counselor in a private school in Norristown, PA for students diagnosed with High-Functioning Autism, Asperger's, mood and anxiety disorders. About 90% of our population has an avid passion for playing video games, as do I. I am thinking of running a club this 2009 summer that has video games involved.
My dilemma is this, the kids can't just play video games, there has to be an educational/therapeutic aspect to our groups. I was wondering if anyone has come across some sort of curriculum that teaches kids essential life skills while involving video games. I am currently looking for such curriculum or group format that would allow me to teach some skills to our students while involving them in their favorite activity. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
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Have you tried the Serious Games community?
Website: http://www.seriousgames.org/ (but it's not working now...)
Close cousins are the Games for Change and Health Games communities:
http://www.gamesforchange.org/
I'm curious, what sorts of life skills should these games feature?
I'm not a doctor but I'm someone who has grown up with video games my entire life. Now that I'm old enough I've really come to appreciate just how much video games have influenced me in very positive ways... Something I've always believed is that video games hold the potential to do great thing's on a personal level as well as a societal level. I completely support this idea 110% and can guarantee you that if you find the right way to engage your students, it could easily be their new favorite project.
One idea I might suggest is to find a solid title (off the top of my head: Super Mario 64, most Zelda games or most any solid platformer made for people of all ages) and that also relies heavily on problem solving and coordination, and then explore that title with the kids. For example, create a scavenger hunt consisting of different elements of the game and then divide the kids into teams of two or three. After you hand out the scavenger hunts have them take turns (My friends and I use a "levels or lives" factor to determine when someones time is up) searching for parts of the game that you enjoyed. Or you could even write out objectives for them to accomplish, not even necessarily in-game objectives, an example for Mario 64 might be something like "collect 10 red coins or 3 stars" then have them show you their findings and you can then mark the objective off of their list. Ask them questions like "why was this game fun or not fun? and What would you do differently?
Off the top pf my head these are just a few of the limitless possibilities for including a learning experience into ANY video game. The main goal is to take any game you think would be fun for them to play and try to incorporate not only a learning experience but give them a chance to explore the fun mechanics of that particular game. Game's are meant to be fun so give them something to have fun with! :)
Hope this helps and good luck,
Maxwell Jensen
Sounds like there are some great ideas out there and some games to go along with them. I was thinking of maybe incorporating a LAN party into the mix and do some group counseling but that would be a toughy. Do you or anyone else know of a good website for gamers/gaming industry where I could post this same issue? I have posted on Serious Gamer and emailed Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo and would like to spread the word to see what is out there. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.