Online Gaming

Internet Course Module

Objectives:

Students will be able to demonstrate introductory knowledge, skills, and understanding of concepts related to technology and online gaming (ISTE Standard 1a).

Students will be able to apply technology to develop their higher order skills and creativity (ISTE Standard 3c).

Students will be able to manage learning activities in a technology-enhanced environment (ISTE Standard 3d).

Introduction:

After searching the internet and finding resources students will often discover that they can not only research online but there are also games available for them to play. There are many sites that allow you to play their games free of charge which can be rather tempting especially if you are supposed to be working on another project or assignment. For this assignment we are going to be doing both, playing online games and finding out more information on online gaming and completing an activity or project.

Activity:

Visit the following sites for free online gaming and play a few different games. (For some of the sites you might have to sign up with a user name and password but this is free and does not take too much time.) Don’t get too carried away because you don’t want to get sucked into the world on obsessive online gaming because once you do it is hard to scrape yourself off.

www.pogo.com – A free online gaming site that includes card and board games, word games, puzzle games, sports games, extreme sports games, and arcade games. They also provide games that are available for download so that you can play off-line.

www.shockwave.com – A free online gaming site that includes action games, mind games, and adrenaline games. More video style games rather then your classic board game.

www.popcap.com – A free online gaming site that has a little bit of everything including puzzle games, card games, arcade games, and word games.

www.uproar.com – A free online gaming site that includes bingo, board and tile games, game show games, strategy games, word games, card games, and many more.

www.zone.msn.com – A free online gaming site provided by MSN that includes puzzle games, word and trivia games, pop culture games, card and board games, casino games, and racing and sports games.

After playing a few different games hopefully you are not sucked in (but if you are it happens to the best of us). Read the following article on online gaming. After reading the article complete the assignment provided.

Online Game Communities are Social in Nature – An avid gamers perspective of this online world and just how "friendly" people involved in a friendly online game really are.

Assignment:

After playing several online games and reading the article provided write a review of your online gaming experience. The review should include the sites visited and your experience on each site. The games played on each site and how they resembled to the same game played off-line, if applicable. For example if you played checkers online with another player or against the computer how it differed from playing checkers face to face with another player. Explain your overall opinions of online gaming and your experience. If it was a positive one give reasons why and if your experience was a negative one give specific reasons why and ways that it can be changed in the future to a more positive experience. If you chatted with anyone while playing a game explain your conversation and how the discussion played a role in your overall experience.

Submission:

The review should be typed, double-spaced with 12-point font. It should be completed and handed in to the teachers drop box by May 1^st, 2004.

Rubric:

Review	1	2	3
Format	Hand-written, messy appearance.	Typed review.	Typed, double-spaced, with 12-point font.
Grammar/Spelling	Multiple grammar errors and multiple spelling mistakes.	Few grammar errors and few spelling mistakes.	Grammar is appropriate for grade level and spelling is correct.
Sites Visited	Named 1 site visited and named 1 gamed played on that site.	Named 2-3 sites visited and named 2 game played on each site.	Named 3-4 sites visited and named 3 games played on each site.
Experience	Provides no explanation and no examples.	Explains experience while playing the games but does not provide examples.	Explains experience while playing the games and specific examples for each game played.
Opinion	Gives no opinion or examples.	Gives overall opinion of experience but provides no examples.	Gives overall opinion of experience and provides positive and negative examples of each.