On the road to cultural bias: A critique of The Oregon Trail CD-ROM

I read article about the game The Oregon Trail and The Oregon Trail II, interested to see what the author had to say about the subject. I remember playing these games as a child and enjoying them alot. I also remember my parent talking to me about how these games did not tell the whole story. During that same time, I was exposed to lots of information about Native Americans, both inside and outside of the classroom so I realized as I got older the ways in which the story of the Oregon Trail and the pioneers was mistold. Although I really enjoyed playing the game, much of the fun began to wear off as I realized how many lies it was helping to perpetuate. I began to see the danger of using it in the classroom setting with children, as it is essentially a candy-coated way to feed children a skewed and biased view of history. I liked how the author acknowledged that the creator's of the program included lots and lots of information, but information alone does not make the program credible or comprehensive. This is important to note because one of the program's main selling-points is its encyclopedia worthy volume of information. Additionally, I liked how the critique was very well-rounded and addressed all of the myriad of issues that the games raise.