Monthly Archives: September 2009

People bored by board games? Board games better than computer games?

Loony Hiker (Pat), over at Successful Teaching, recently posted her regret that people don’t play board games any more. I’m not so sure this is true. She also says that playing computer games does not help with interpersonal skills or critical thinking. I completely disagree.

Playing video games = Healthy body, healthy mind

In 1961 a psychologist by the name of Albert Bandura ran a series of experiments where groups of children witnessed adults attacking an inflatable bobo doll. The bobo doll experiment was conducted to see whether children learnt violent behaviour by observing and imitating others. This ground setting experiment has led to many studies into the [...]

A Creative Writing Activity Using an Online Game

  Level: Upper-intermediate Topic: Planning stories Writing Focus: Fictional story Time: 1 hour/ 1.5 hours Game: Arcane Season: The Miller Estate part 1    Key Language: cellar, path, lantern, chest, hook, matches, well, rope, bucket, firewood, crate, rug, trapdoor, wine rack, barrel. Preparation: Connected classroom or computer room. One printed copy of the flashcards. One [...]

Video games go to the Movies

  I’m game for the movies   Many films go on to become video games but do you know which films started out as video games? The pictures above show just four of those films, can you name them? You may be surprised to find out that there have been quite a few more. Which [...]

Gamer – the unsettling action film about our possible future

Gamer is a new science-fiction action film that features people playing an online game in which participants can control human beings as players.  I’ve not seen it yet, and reviews have been mixed (see Wikipedia article) , but it is interesting to see a film released that predicts a dystopian future based on the current [...]

How to Use ‘Escape the Room’ games

An Escape the Room game is a type of adventure game that lends itself well to the language classroom because they are very difficult to complete without help. The objective of such games is to (surprise! surprise!) escape from a room (or a series of rooms), and this is usually done by completing a number of puzzles.

About Digital Play

Digital Play is a new blog aimed at language teachers who are interested in using computer games and other digital toys with learners. The main focus will be on English Language Teaching (ELT)