.The children of the future, it appears, will perhaps not be able to claim that Monopoly is educational because it requires them to do math. (Although I'll admit that I always found Monopoly frustrating because other people's mental math is slower than mine.)
Somewhat more seriously, are the children of the future (or, perhaps, the present) going to feel that they have less reason to learn mathematics because they don't deal with cash? That seems like it would be something that would motivate at least some students to learn basic arithmetic.
1 comment:
Yah, it's been out for a while. I've never played it, although my wife has it on her Christmas list. I think it could be fun and it definitely cuts down on the arguing over who is going to be the banker since there really isn't any 'banking' to do. It also makes the game more expensive to own (batteries, replacement scanner, etc). But I definitely agree that we are going to see it negatively impact education. Not only does it cut out all math higher than counting the numberr of hotels on a property (if there even still are...I'm sure those have probably been replaced now with penthouse suites or luxurious $39M mansions), but it also seems like it would cut out a lot on the idea of how the real estate market works, because the game is doing so much of the work for you. And the decline in motivation to learn math has definitely already started. I teach high school math in the middle of Kansas and there is very little desire out here. Students don't need to learn how to do the math, just how to plug it in to their calculator. It really is sad when you have to argue with a student over the use of a calculator. It's starting at a young age and trickling up. I feel very much stranded when I'm trying to teach solving equations and the kids can't even count by 3 or 4 to find a common denominator. I am probably expositing too much, especially when I should be getting lessons ready for the day, but I saw this post and just had two throw in my two cents. Thanks for the thought!
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