Get elected president (virtually) by playing eLections
August 4, 2010
Just because the presidential election is two years away, that doesn’t mean you have to wait around to get your students interested in presidential politics is the web-based game, eLections. Free to play and requiring only an internet connection, eLections takes you step by step through the presidential election process, from declaring candidacy to getting your party’s nomination to landing the most difficult job there is.
The game is similar in layout to the board game Life, and you take turns moving your piece across the board and making choices that will either make or break you come election time. The real fun in the experience is that there are many ways to win — if you want to be a candidate so conservative you make Rush look like Olberman and vice versa, you can do it. The key is to stay on message and stick to your political ideology that you create at the beginning of the game. A nice twist is you can insert a third party candidate as well to spice things up and teach your students that there are ideas outside of the donkey/elephant dichotomy. There is a ton of information about the election process available at each stage of the game so the educational value is readily apparent.
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