Last week, it was reported that a Swedish school was to use Minecraft to teach kids about "city planning, environmental issues, getting things done, and even how to plan for the future." The obvious objection is that there are better games for learning how to simulate cities. Like, I dunno, that one called SimCity.
Clearly Maxis also see the potential of their sandbox sim as an education tool, as EA have announced SimCityEDU , an online community designed to let teachers create and share lesson plans based on the game. This one is US focused, with the curriculum and tools being designed around the US Common Core State Standards Initiative. The goal is to spark student's interest in science, technology, engineering and maths.
The tool is in development by GlassLab, a non-profit collaboration between the Institute of Play, EA, the ESA and others. SimCityEDU is due out in March, and teachers can sign up for the program here . Your pupils will love for it.
Thanks, Joystiq .
