Serious Games Interactive brought the plague to the iPad, but it’s not a computer virus. The company’s award-winning educational game Playing History: The Plague has spread off of the PC and on to the more portable tablet where the company hopes even more students can learn from it.
The idea is to change how children think about history by having them uncover key concepts and facts. By exploring via an interactive environment, young people will have fun while gaining an understanding of important historical events.
Players in The Plague are part of a family in 14th century Florence, Italy, and they must save their mother from the usually fatal illness sweeping the city. Doing this requires journeys through the city, investigating how people live, talking to religious, science and other people of the time, and discovering ways to cure the disease as well as to prevent it from spreading – especially to the player. Another in the series, Playing History: Slave Trade, will be available for iPad early 2012.
“We have worked towards finding the right balance between play and learning and we believe we managed that with Playing History.” Mikkel Lucas Overby, commercial director at Serious Games Interactive, said in a statement. “For many children, our past is unknown territory. Games may be today’s dominant entertainment medium but, as we’re demonstrating with Playing History that they’re also a powerful tool to develop and expand children’s knowledge and competences.”
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