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[jay-ell]

http://web.uncg.edu/dcl/econ201/interview.html

So, some prof at UNC-G is offering a freshman-level course online as a strategy simulation.  It actually looks pretty neat to me, but I'm more interested in what you guys think -- the current students and the academic types in particular -- about this kind of teaching technology. 

Does it make difficult concepts easier to understand and more relevant?  Or does it devalue a traditional college education? 

Is there a place for interactive technologies alongside traditional lecture-listen types of classrooms?  Could (and should) this kind of teaching eventually replace more traditional classroom settings? 

Does this kind of online course make college-level learning more accessible?  Or does this just give rich kids one more way to get a leg up on their economically less fortunate classmates? 

Please write your answers in blue or black ink in the blue books provided.  You have two hours. 

[Arachno-capitalist]

As you've figured out by now, economics is my passion in life and I.... OMG ITS A DANCING ALIEN. I wish I could at least demo the program, but it appears there is no non-credit option and I'd have to pay to enroll as a "visiting student" for credits I already have. Oh well.
There is an ongoing debate among the economics academia and I would assume in other areas as well, about how best to engage students (particularly intro students) such that they retain the information for longer than needed for the final. It is an interesting debate among economists because we understand the student, if not an economics major, has every incentive to only use his (presumably) finite long-term-brain-capacity on things he believes he will use in the future. So if the student is presented with nothing more than boring formulas or graphs about Utility Theory with no substance in the real world, he will correctly act in the most efficient matter and forget it as soon as possible.
My side of the discussion believes in teaching Pete Boettke's The Economic Way of Thinking so that economics becomes a lens for viewing the world and not a classroom burden.
That said, a game may provide a different means to the same end. The introduction to the game at least presents the ideas of wants and scarcity: the most basic idea of intro.

(Ironically, the highly regarded and prestigious A-CAP teaches economics with boring charts and theory, but my previous school, the tiny and unknown liberal arts all-mens school Hampden-Syndey College taught The Economic Way of Thinking in a way that changed my life)

[theinevitable]

also: UNCG, and Greensboro in general...

DEPRESSION.
not "depressing."
Those places ARE DEPRESSION.

I don't remember any time that I've been there that didn't end in tragedy.

But, what can you expect from a Junior Classical League day-trip?

[wombat]

Is there a place for interactive technologies alongside traditional lecture-listen types of classrooms?  Could (and should) this kind of teaching eventually replace more traditional classroom settings? 

I hope not. Some of us actually learn best from lectures and regular books and such. We really do exist.

The other day my doctor gave me a prescription for a migraine drug that you have to start out on a fancy dosing schedule. The box has a chart with pictures - little pictures of different numbers of the pills and icons of the sun and moon in boxes all lined up with each other - and he had to explain it twice before I understood it. I was all like, "can't they just explain it in words and sentences and print THAT on the box?"

[AugustWest]

Wait, we don't get to actually play the game.

Damn.

[Doc]

I think new technologies give us some good opportunities for this but I think sometimes people get a little too into it. Practical examples are always great but I think they should generally supplement not replace good ol' books.

[KeithHernandez]

I think new technologies give us some good opportunities for this but I think sometimes people get a little too into it. Practical examples are always great but I think they should generally supplement not replace good ol' books.

I hope not. Some of us actually learn best from lectures and regular books and such. We really do exist.

/somewhere right in between them.

[jaydub]

I think new technologies give us some good opportunities for this but I think sometimes people get a little too into it. Practical examples are always great but I think they should generally supplement not replace good ol' books.

/somewhere right in between them.

I hope not. Some of us actually learn best from lectures and regular books and such. We really do exist.

I have yet to come across a teaching modality I couldn't learn from.  On the other hand, a lot of people seem to pick up ideas from the various techniques faster than I do.  I gather this is characteristic of the generalist-type mind I seem to have.

[chuanoplast]

Just for laughs and gas, both of my microecon classes so far (intro and intermediate) have used this online homework/teaching tool called Aplia that partially automates your homework. (Worst description ever.) Though it's still full of graphs, charts, and theories with hilarious names. (A-CAP, have you used it in any of your classes? Or is this a West Coast thing?)

So I guess I'm in between on the technology vs. tradition issue. And I really want to play this alien game now.

[Arachno-capitalist]

Just for laughs and gas, both of my microecon classes so far (intro and intermediate) have used this online homework/teaching tool called Aplia that partially automates your homework. (Worst description ever.) Though it's still full of graphs, charts, and theories with hilarious names. (A-CAP, have you used it in any of your classes? Or is this a West Coast thing?)

So I guess I'm in between on the technology vs. tradition issue. And I really want to play this alien game now.

Yes, ive used Aplia. I suck horribly at drawing things like graphs so i enjoyed it on that level. Also, automatically graded homework is nice.

[jay-ell]

Wow, I abandoned the hell out of this thread. 

I have some thoughts, but no time.  To be brief:

I'm a gamer.  My favorite games have always been resource management games like Warcraft (not WOW, but the old-school wargames) and Sim City.  (See thread on Sim City Societies, which I pre-ordered yesterday.)  I feel you can learn a lot from these kinds of games, because they take abstract concepts and help you apply them in somewhat real-world settings. 

However.  I'm also an academic, and I think that the traditional Q-and-A, Lecture/Listen approach has value as well.  At some point you have to learn the concepts behind the model, and I think without this academic foundation even the best-designed game is just that -- a game. 

Plus, I think the edutainment model of pedagogy is somewhat limited.  This works well for, say, Econ or the social sciences (Civilization 4, anyone?), but to try to apply it to history or mathematics or literature or natural science seems like it would end up being a high-graphics version of Wikipedia.  Except, you know, less useful. 

But I have seen how well my son has been learning from the Reader Rabbit series of games on our PC, and the production value on these games is pretty low.  I think that the great untapped potential of edutainment for young children through high-school age kids is quite possibly one of our educational system's greatest tragedies.  I think its usefulness is in addition to traditional education -- under parental supervision, as a supplement to homework time or a replacement for in-class drill-and-practice busywork -- and when used in this way it can help the student learn and retain a complex concept in a deeper, more useful, longer-lasting way. 

And that's all the time I have...sorry. 

[jaydub]

Wow, I abandoned the hell out of this thread. 

And yet, we're still on topic!

I've been happily surprised about the utility of preschool kid edu-tainment programs.  I need to find the next level up however.  My daughter is happily playing the ones she's already completely mastered.  I think its the gaming version of reading the same damn story for the 50th time.