I think there's huge potential for computer games to influence how history is taught.
Imagine an RPG set in a slice of medieval Europe, where you experience daily life (in a variety of roles, from peasant to king) and hear about events occurring around you and confront choices, with every detail as accurate as we know it. Imagine that this game is actually fun to play, and that it's not teaching information via walls of text or memorization games, but making real information an integral part of the game world.
That's the future, IMO. Or part of it, anyway. Talk about the topics after the students have experienced it first-hand.
It doesn't use the medium's full potential, but Oregon Trail is actually moderately successful imo at imparting basic knowledge about: 1) the existence of this episode in history; 2) some of the geographical information and landmarks along the way; and 3) a few basic pieces of information about period travel.
There's a lot more that could be done, and it's not clear it imparts only accurate information, but for me at least, it's where I learned that "fording a river" was a thing that existed; that Chimney Rock is a landmark; that there was a period in history when wagon trains were regularly heading out west along this lengthy route; etc.
Imagine an RPG set in a slice of medieval Europe, where you experience daily life (in a variety of roles, from peasant to king) and hear about events occurring around you and confront choices, with every detail as accurate as we know it. Imagine that this game is actually fun to play, and that it's not teaching information via walls of text or memorization games, but making real information an integral part of the game world.
That's the future, IMO. Or part of it, anyway. Talk about the topics after the students have experienced it first-hand.