World of Middle Schoolcraft

I could not believe my eyes when I stumbled upon this website documenting a project that incorporates World of Warcraft into the language arts curriculum of two separate middle schools. While I am not targeting the middle school age demographic with my own thesis, it does seem like "at-risk" category students of all ages would benefit most from having video games included into the classroom, so I might need to consider my own curriculum being geared towards this spectrum of students. Anyway, Lucas Gillispie's WoW project is no joke, as can be seen by the 296 page fully developed syllabus.  While I still have a looong way to go in reading through the plan completely before I can really assess the program, but I wanted to share a few highlights I found on the site that look really promising. 

- Look how involved the students are in the subject material.  Whether or not you agree that games have a place in a curriculum, the game's ability to captivate the students seen in the video cannot be argued.  At the very least, one can see how this is similar to showing a movie in class with the intent of trying to grab the attention of the learners, which can then lead to future interest and learning in that subject (I'm looking at you science teachers, and your endless supply of Bill Nye videos).  But back to the point, the students' are working collaboratively toward a common goal while playing WoW, and (according to the video and the syllabus) gaining a wide breadth of knowledge in several key areas that they may originally have had little to no interest in. 

-  The Student Work section of the site really impressed me- especially the four pieces of machinima (pieces of cinematic production that typically feature video games) that the students created.  These students put a lot of creative effort into the movie trailers that they produced through WoW.  The students have a firm grasp on the game's reality and overall plot, which they have used in order to create unique characters and storylines for their trailers.  I think in terms of literacy and learning, the game has offered a great deal to these students. 

- For those worried about addiction to WoW, which can be a very serious problem, the accounts are strictly monitored for limited playing time so that the students can only access their account during class.  Judging from an interview that Joystiq.com conducted with some of the students participating in this project, it doesn't appear that many of the students even have accounts outside of the class, which can be attributed to discussions that the teachers have with the parents about the dangers of game addiction. 

- I loved this last line in the introduction on the main page:  All portions of this wiki are open and visible.  You don't have to "request access" to be able to read anything here.  However, if you are interested in contributing, and we want you to, when you request access, please let me know your name, if you work for an education-based organization, and what you might like to contribute.  I may just make try to make a contribution after I've read more about what the students are already doing...