Icivics - Cool Tool Review #4 - An awesome way to play

I decided to explore the plethora of games and tools available to social studies educators through the site iCivics.  This is a treasure chest for those that teach social studies and civics to the 4th through 8th grade demographic.  Some of the tools seem a bit elementary for use on the high school level.

I would encourage anyone who teachers or has an interest in civics to check out the site for all of the interactive games and lessons it has.  Creating an account is optional and allows folks to be able to save games and keep track of progress in games.  The account creation also allows you to accumulate points (more about that later.)

For educators, there are a number of curriculum plans and lessons designed to anchor games and simulations to classroom instruction.  In addition, there is a neat tool called Drafting Board, which allows students to be able to construct essays in a step by step format.  Additionally, students can browse primary documents as part of the drafting board process to get inspiration.

The educational games and simulations available to students is quite vast.  Students can virtually argue to learn how to build arguments.  They can serve as virtual campaign managers to understand the process of how elections work.  They can even manage a law firm that handles cases touching the Bill of Rights.  All are pretty engaging.

I decided to try out two the games/simulations.  First, I played Executive Command.  I served as President and began by picking a legislative agenda (I chose education for some crazy reason).  You serve for four years and time ticks slowly by.  You read bills and veto the ones you do not believe in.  Also, crises emerge like this one:

 
Once you sign a bill into law, a player must decide which appropriate department should enforce it.  The presidential avatar walks there and hands off the bill.  Similarly, invitations from world leaders can either be handled by you or delegated to the Secretary of State.  Based on decisions, approval ratings go up and down.  The main playing area looks like this:

When the four years are completed, the player receives a certificate that reviews how well you performed.

This provides some great formative assessment data or even affective data for assessment.  You could have students reflect on what laws they delegated unsuccessfully and why.  You could even ask whey they failed at a particular diplomatic mission.  Players are forced to make decisions based on what they know about how the executive branch functions.

I played a similar game called Counties Work.  This focuses on being an administrator on the local level.  From the very beginning, you learn how counties use different names for the executive function and have different departments.  Mostly, you spend the time figuring out how to spend tax money in response to citizens' complaints.  Here's a quick peak at what the main game play looks like.  Mostly, your mayor avatar moves to different departments to escort resident avatars to the services they need.

I found this game to be much harder than the presidential game.  I had to try to forecast tax needs and revenues while also sorting through local agencies.  I made several mistakes including sending a person looking for the coroner to Public Health instead of Law Enforcement.  At the end of four game years, players are presented with a certificate critiquing their performance.

Similar assignments could be presented allowing students to reflect on their performance in this game.

One of the neatest things is that those who build an account can accumulate points.  Those points can be used as 'votes' in their online store.  There are a number of local charities and projects that are available to compete for your votes.  Those that receive the most points will be awarded $1,000 grants from Icivics.  This reinforces one of Icivics' major philosophies which is that students have the power to change the world around them.

In the classroom, Icivics games could be used as a way of applying concepts learned in class into a real world simulation.  It is one thing to talk about abstractly how the government works, but it is another when students actually have to make decisions.  After a few lessons on the executive branch of the federal governments, students could be challenged to play this game.  It would help them see how the president has to work with his cabinet and Congress to get things done.

I would use this tool because it is really fun and engaging.  Sometimes it is hard to simulate what it is actually like to have to make these decisions.  Role playing in a classroom can work, but not all can participate.  A game like this one on iCivics allows students to try out the reality of working in government.

Students would have no problem using this game.  The operation is very intuitive.  Most of the time, you just need to click on things to move or sign a bill.  I think age level would be the hardest thing with this tool.  High school students would likely find this a bit juvenile and perhaps simplistic.  (At no point in the presidential simulation do you have to worry about how much money you are spending or prioritizing initiatives.)

Overall, this tool is a lot of fun.