Games

**The Nickel-and-Dimed Challenge (//The Sims 3//)**
If you have students who play //The Sims 3//, this might make an interesting assignment. Many players of The Sims play games within the game, and this one is based on Barbara Ehrenreich's oh-so-useful book, //Nickel and Dimed//. The game was invented by Yamx (a pseudonym), who posted a challenge to fellow players; complete the game as a single mother, and raise your children successfully, living within the rigid set of economic rules she has designed.

Yamix has uploaded a slideshow that gives some idea of the game: []

Spent: another economic game
This game is available to more people than Nickel-and-Dimed, as it is accessed through a browser; it takes the student through the daily decisions of the working poor. It's a bit simple, but gives an idea of what is possible.


 * SPENT,** a game presented by the Urban Ministries of Durham [|http://playspent.org]

Games about Sweatshops
These two games explore working in a sweatshop; one is from the perspective of the worker, the other from the perspective of the owner. It might be an interesting assignment to ask students which game affected them more strongly, and why.

@http://www.simsweatshop.com/game/

@http://www.playsweatshop.com/index.html

=**BIBLIOBOUTS: teaching about research**= (Institute of Museum and Library Studies, University of Michigan)

I can't reccomend Bibliobouts for a distance or large class situation; it's a little too complicated for our students to install Zotero, a wonderful free browser-based bibliographical tool. However, I would like to describe Bibliobouts, because it uses a strongly consensus-based game to teach students how to cite their work properly; it shows students how to work collaboratively, and it's kind of fun.

Biliobouts asks students to collect resources on a given topic, then contribute them online to a group pool. They rate the contributions of others on a numeric scale, then add subject tags to each contribution. Finally, students go to the group pool and choose the ten best contributions for their own bibliography. The winner of this "game" is the person whose contributions are used most by others.

If there were a way to get help for my students to install Zotero, I would very much like to use this game. It's a wonderful way to promote collaboration among students. Going through the fuss of setting it up might be worth the effort, as once students have learned how to use Zotero it will be of great use to them in the future.


 * About Bibliobouts** []


 * Try Bibliobouts** []


 * Try Zotero** - []

Zotero collects bibliographical details from library and website resources. Each entry can be tagged and stored in a subject collection, and collections can be shared with other scholars. Although the input must be checked by a human, Zotero can assemble bibliographies from your collected resources.