Last week we started the game-play portion of my Iberian History and Culture Class. See posts below for more information about the class. I have to be honest, I was worried for weeks about how this would go. I wasn't sure if the students would really get into it, if they would think it is dumb, or if they would reject the idea flat out. It turns out that while there are still things to be worked out, I AM MORE CONVINCED NOW THAN EVER THAT THIS IS A VALUABLE WAY TO CONDUCT CLASS. I have never seen students more consistently engaged, working hard, and learning than I have in this class. The sheer quantity of work is pretty amazing. Each student has read hundreds if not thousands of pages, and written dozens more. They are also not just speaking in Spanish, but they are conversing, solving problems, trash-talking, making jokes, and even singing songs! The video below is actually an embedded playlist, so you can see all of the videos I've taken over the past couple of days. Below that, I've put a gallery of pictures to give you an idea of the creative scope of this project -- including the impressive array of maps students have created for the game. As one of my colleagues said: These students are dialed in!
