Thursday, July 10, 2008

Serious Games


Life and Death in the Age of Malaria:


The School of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison teaches students to techniques to prevent Malaria and other infectious diseases before traveling for study abroad programs. This game was designed to help students apply these skills before traveling to reduce the risk for Malaria.
After the student learns the basics, the game creates a simulated scenario where students prepare and travel to different countries. The game goal is to keep the students alive and healthy. Similar to Oregon Trail, students ‘test drive’ the skills they learn, buying the right items and taking the right prescriptions. It’s isn’t easy, sometimes the simulated students run out of money, get sick, and die.

The game lets students apply the skills they learn before being in the situation themselves. This may have similar applications with other conditions that need specific skills to mange the disease, such as diabetes.

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