Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

8.25.09 | Worried that youth today are more likely to know the names of the American Idol judges than a Supreme Court judge, retired Justice O’Connor helped initiate two online games. Do I Have A Right? and Supreme Decision aim to teach middle-school students about the role of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the judiciary, and other branches of government. 

In Do I Have a Right? students can run a law firm and must advise clients using the Constitution and Bill of Rights.  In Supreme Decision, students play clerk to a justice of the Supreme Court and help decide about a student’s rights in school. Students can listen to animated oral arguments and discussions with justices and engage in activities that test their ability to distinguish between political speech and nonpolitical speech.

The site includes a video introduction from Justice O’Connor as well as online lesson plans and links to teaching resources.

In addition to these games, James Gee is leading a team that is designing a game within Our Courts called Guardians of Law. The game challenges players to develop rules of law in their fictional world using existing U.S. case law and the U.S. Constitution.

Our Courts is web-based education project, supported in part by the MacArthur Foundation, designed to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in our democracy. For more on the project go here and here.