![]() ![]() I realized I was learning things without trying to learn things, and that is pretty exciting for a learning professional to learn. The longer you play the game, the more experiences you have with the various hardships experienced by people in developing countries. I played this game several times and it became a goal to get my little family out of poverty. What I Learned about Using Games for Learning ![]() You may have to forego medicine for the kids to keep the parents healthy enough to work. You may have to accept a corporation’s offer of payment to store poisonous chemicals on your land in order to have money for next year’s crops. You’d better not let your daughters get married and move away because they need to work on the farm. The family’s needs are secondary to tough fiscal realities. If a disease wipes out a family member, you’ll need the kids to pick up the slack. Children don’t contribute for the first few years, but when they get older they can share an increasing amount of the work. ![]() The short-term pay-off of sending them away is counter-balanced by the cost of losing a good farm worker.īe planful about having kids. You need all hands available to work the farm. Education is expensive and the loss of the workers on the farm is costly.ĭon’t send your family members to work in the city unless you’re desperate. They do the bulk of the work, and when their health fails, the farm fails.Įducation is a distant dream for your family in the first (and maybe second) generation(s). If you have a bad year on wheat, you’ll have corn, cotton, and peanuts to sustain you until the following year. What I Learned about Farming in the Developing Worldĭiversify your crops until you’re out of the woods. When my boss found me wasting valuable work time on this game, we had a brief discussion about whether or not I was actually “learning” anything. Indeed I was, both about Farming in the Developing World and on Gamification in Learning. Each year, you’ll be affected by common issues that arise: droughts, civil wars, illness, corruption, and so on, with which you must cope to survive. The gist of the game is to help your little family survive year over year by planting crops, raising livestock, buying tools, building wells and barns, and eventually, building infrastructure, such as roads, schools and health clinics. ![]() Andersen on her blog Busynessgirl. Though not an avid gamer, I did have a quick look through some of the offerings, and soon found a fun game entitled 3rd World Farmer, described as “a thought-provoking simulation.” A couple of weeks ago I stumbled on a brilliant mind map of “ Serious Games” compiled by Maria H. ![]()
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March 2023
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