InformatistBusinessSimulationGame

Algebra, calculus, US history—American high school students have a panoply of regular courses that they must take in order to obtain a high school degree.  Only half of American high school graduates then complete a four-year degree in college.  It’s ironic that many of these students don’t have the opportunity to take a business course during their four-year high school studies.  And yet business is the area in which many high school graduates will end up after their studies.

How is one to close the gap between ‘book learning’ on esoteric subjects during high school, and imparting that which is necessary for students to know as they enter the business world?  Most of the high school students’ teachers have no experience in business.  They are typically newly-minted teachers, direct out of college, who have never had to compete in the ‘real’ business world.  The teachers are therefore ill-equipped to teach their charges the realities of the business world that many of them must encounter after their studies.

Teens Learn Through Games—Informatist Teaches Business through Online Gaming Tools.

How do teens learn these days?  Of course textbooks and lectures play an important role in the learning experience in high school.  But teens learn vicariously through online massive gaming in ways that are fund, involving, and eventually more engrossing than classroom lectures. The level of thinking required for high school students in real-time online games is simply on a different level than that they encounter in the classroom.

Modern games have moved from CD- and DVD-based on-computer software programs to massively online gaming engines which allow hundreds or even thousands of students to interact in novel ways.  Although many of their online gaming is in ’shoot-’em-ups’ or social networking games (such as The Sims), the students are nevertheless learning a good deal about their online environment, how to evaluate their situation (’sitrep’) and how to collaborate with others in order to analyze problems and come up with solutions.

Informatist—Learning Business Through Online Gaming.

The developers of Informatist (www.informatist.net), a massively online business simulation game, realized that new tools allow both interaction and flexibility, while imparting real-world lessons in how to solve business problems.  As with many online games targeted at entertainment, the Informatist website creates an environment where the student must analyze his or her resources, come up with strategies to create value, and compete against (or cooperate) with others in their online world to come up to solutions which best the competition.

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