Decisions, Decisions is a 15-part educational role-playing video game series by Tom Snyder Productions, released from the 1980s to the early 2000s. It has also been described as a "media-assisted simulation game" series.
Development
While Tom Snyder originally created games that would suit the "one-computer classroom" model, this series was part of a new gaming focus of "choice-driven discussion generators". The software was designed specifically to foster academic discussions within the classroom. An online learning extension named Decisions, Decisions Online was also created.
Gameplay
Each game puts the players into a scenario based on actual facts and encourages them to come up with solutions. An example is in the title Decisions, Decisions: Prejudice, in which the players take the role of the mayor of a tourist town, in which a newspaper has editorialised against a business trading racial memorabilia. Students discuss the problem in teams, then enter their strategies into the computer, which advances the story, leading to 300 alternate paths. Members of the team receive booklets from the perspective of an adviser to the decision maker, for instance in Decisions,Decisions: The Environment, they could be a campaign manager, and environmentalist, a scientist, and an economist; players then debate this conflicting information to reach a justifiable compromise. The games encourage a five step critical thinking process:
Follow-up activities include: taking quizzes, drawing political cartoons, writing to state and federal legislators, seeing how others parts of the country voted on the issue, and research Web links.
Education World gave Decisions, Decisions Online an A+, describing it as an effective online resource to stimulate the critical thinking skills of young people. Laura Cirillo-Boilard of USJ gave Decisions, Decisions – The Constitution 10/10, praising its ability to develop skills in cooperative learning, reading comprehension, oral communication, problem-solving, and decision-making. Teaching TV Production in a Digital World: Integrating Media Literacy recommended the use of Decisions, Decisions: Violence in the Media within the school curriculum. Character Education in America's Blue Ribbon Schools felt the series effectively allowed students to work together in solving real world problems and analysing the results of their decisions. The website was The New York Times' featured site on January 5, 2000. The Washington Post reported that the series could be ground-breaking in the move from learning distinct subjects to a synergistic approach, using all these skills to complete practical and realistic projects. Macworld noted that Decisions, Decisions 5.0: The Constitution was not a replacement for a U.S. history textbook.
