The three history classes using Firaxis Civilization III (see my post on Civilization III earlier this week) gave their final presentations this week, the last one a couple of hours ago.
Some students chose to give a sort of tour of their Civs during the presentation, most did PowerPoint presentations.
What was interesting to me was that students really seemed to have gotten an idea of what it meant to build a civilization in real life. I heard things like: “My civilizations fell because I spent too much time on culture and not enough on defense” or “I tried despotism but there was too much civil unrest, I had to move to a republic” or “The more cultural things I made (libraries, world wonders) the more other nations wanted to trade with me”

I’ll post more on this experiment as I digest it and review final papers with Lyn. From my point of view though, the experiment was a roaring success as students appeared to be enthused over history as a result. And that’s the point, isn’t it?