I’ll Have the Merlot Please

A brief mention of the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT), which I stumbled upon while in a training workshop for teaching blended/hybrid courses:

MERLOT is an immense searchable directory of learning materials that are available online for free. These materials are suitable for both online and face-to-face teaching environments.

I was particularly interested in political science simulations on MERLOT, and among them I found Ayiti: The Cost of Life.

Ayiti is a simple but fiendishly challenging simulation of poverty in Haiti, created through a partnership between Gamelab and Global Kids, with support from UNICEF and Microsoft. It’s a great demonstration of the effects of productivity shocks in conditions of poverty. The setting is a poor Haitian family that is struggling to survive; the player must decide how to allocate the family’s limited resources, manage risk, and pursue goals. I’ll admit that so far I haven’t been able to crack the simulation’s algorithm — every time I’ve played, the game ends with family members dead of cholera and any surviving children sent off to live with relatives.