I’ve posted and written articles about how I use online video games in class as a language development activity.

Two technical challenges that arise when using these games are:

(1) Sometimes they’re blocked by District filters. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve found District administrators to be pretty cooperative in lifting those bans. On my Intermediate English page under Word and Video Games, the games that have an * by them are accessible (at least through our District). There are quite a few of them.

(2) A number of excellent games cannot be played on the Internet, but instead have to be downloaded to the computer. This is often not feasible to do on school computers.

For this second challenge, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find several games that formerly had only been accessible via downloading can now be played online.

These include Hidden Expedition — Everest, which fits in nicely with a unit we do on…..Mt. Everest; and Westward, which connects to a unit that we do on….the American West.

It appears that it’s not unusual for formerly downloadable games to become available online after several months, sort of how movies go on DVD.