SimCity to be Used in the Classroom with SimCityEDU

[Shawn Zipay]

Just as Valve has done with Portal, EA is looking to use a videogame as a teaching device. SimCityEDU will be used as an online "educational community" that is based on the SimCity game.

Those in the education field will be able to create and share virtual SimCity-based lesson plans with their students. This will "encourage students to think critically about the challenges facing modern cities." This will, in turn, help with urban planning, environmental management, and socio-economic development."

“For decades, SimCity has been embraced by the educational community as an engaging videogame that also provides a powerful learning experience, teaching problem solving skills through imaginative civic gameplay,” said Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA’s Maxis Label. “We want to up the ante of SimCity’s educational influence. Through our partnership with GlassLab, SimCity will become the foundation of a program to re-imagine learning in a way that will inspire today’s youth to get excited about STEM education and become the problem solvers of tomorrow.”

More information on SimCity and SimCityEDU can be found at the SimCity website.

[Stryker]

I wonder if this means sim city will be ultra realistic...which would be sweet.