Dave McDivitt

These quotes are from the game play group.  They were asked after the game play to write on the difficulties of leadership and the qualities that a leader should have.

Male Student 1:  “It’s a lot of responsibility being the leader of a country.  you have a lot of things to pay attention to.  You have to keep the economy up, make it grow if possible.  you have to build your military:  armies, naval fleets, and air force.  In order to do that you have to raise taxes and spend less money on other projects such as education, unemployment, health, and industry.  While doing all these things you have to keep everyone happy.  Which was by far the hardest thing to do in this game.”

Male Student 2:  “The greatest quality is education.  With proper knowledge, a leader can cause a country to prosper while at war.  One of the greatest difficulties is appealing to every wish of the citizens of your country.  Another quality is a good staff.  If a leader is not kept up to date on the issues surrounding him/her, he is not fit to make proper decisions to benefit the people as well as the country.  Another great difficulty is monetary issues.  proper tax levels as well as the spread of spending levels is essential to the support a country’s leader receive.”

Female Student 1:  “There was so much to worry about as the leader of a country.  There was always something to do and something that needed to be fixed.  It was pretty much impossible to keep everyone happy.  Being the leader of a country you have to be very patient and try not to get too stressed.  You have to think about what is best for your country and the outcome of things.”

Female Student 2:  “To be a leader you have to have a lot of patience because it takes a lot of time to make a country prosper.  Also, you need to have good morals and a sense of mercy and justice.  Hitler didn’t have those (and neither did a boy in class LOL) so they both had a lot of countries who were really mad at them.  you also need to have charisma so you can win the support of your people and other countries.  One of the things that was really difficult in the game was trying to keep everyone happy.  In order to raise wages, you had to take money from health or education, etc.  It was also hard to figure out what it would take in order for another country to accept our agreement.”

Reading what students say on paper after the game is great.  I believe the thoughts expressed in these four examples show the depth of understanding that can come from the use of a tool such as a computer game.  Can I achieve this level with out a game?  Sure I can.  People have been doing it for years.  But I would also like to say that 100 years ago we all rode horses to the general store.  I can still get there by horse today but the car is much better.  These times…..they are a changin.

As I was walking out of my classroom today, I grabbed the pile of papers, just in case, and brought them home.  Well my wife and I have been running some numbers since my kids have been in bed.  What an exciting life I have on a Friday night! 

Item #1  In post testing only two muliple choice questions were asked of both groups.  They read 

What was the Munich Conference? 

1. The meeting where Germany demanded all of Czechoslovakia.
2. The meeting where Britain and France offered Czechoslovakian Sudetenland to Germany.  (correct answer)
3. The meeting where the Soviet Union suggested that Germany and the USSR divide Poland.
4. The meeting where Hitler decided to invalde Poland in 1939.

Control Group Correct answers:  55.172%  Game Play Group  93.442%

Question 2:  What did the governments of Nazi Germany and the Communist Soviet Union have in common?

1. They controlled all official media.
2. People who disagreed with them were punished and sometimes killed.
3. They wanted to control territory in Eastern Europe.
4. All of the above. (correct answer)

Correct Answers Control Group:  72.413%  Game Play Group:  81.967

Item #2:  In both pre testing and post testing both groups were asked to list three reasons for the start of WWII with a brief explanation for each reason.  There is certainly more I can do with this one but as of right now…..in the Control Group  34.48% of students raised their score from the pre test to the post test.  As for the Game Play group:  67.21% of the students raised their score.

I am not a expert in statistics unless it has to do with points allowed by my defense on the Oak Hill Golden Eagle football team.  But what I am seeing here is the game players are doing better on assessment.  I will make mention of the fact that the control group scored very well on the multiple choice question about the similarities of the Nazi state and the Communist Russia question.  Why, I can only imagine that it came from class discussions that the game players did not get on the topic.  But that is really just a guess.   I certainly find the results of this very interesting.  I will have more comments next week and maybe some more analysis of data. 

Oh, and by the way, The Mighty German Dictator from yesterday emerged from his dark bunker to find that France had essentially run out of troops and the Nazi flag was still flying.  Luckily for me the scenario ended before the UK could finish what they had started which was the anihilation of their teacher and the German State.