EA and Maxis, a.k.a. the folks behind the upcoming SimCity game, announced on Friday that they have partnered with the GlassLab for a new initiative to use the game for educational purposes. The initiative is called SimCityEDU, and has a new website that will launch alongside the game in March. The brief introduction on the site reads:
Engage your students by using the SimCity game to make learning come alive! Create and share SimCity-based learning tools that address a wide range of subjects including science, math, civics, economics, and more.
The point of SimCityEDU is to encourage more students to pursue learning and careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths). Teachers will be able to use the new website to create and share lesson plans that focus on SimCity in a way that will get students interested in things like research, technology, and game development. The site has a form so interested parties can sign up for the beta.
This can only be a good thing. I'm all for using games as tools in education, like the schools that use Minecraft in lessons, and SimCity is certainly complex enough to offer students quite a lot. Besides, this is just another example that games aren't the total waste of time (if not wholly evil pastime) that some seem to believe.