Games and School

In third grade, on 5 1/4" floppy disks, we played Oregon Trail.  We learned about what problems American's faces int he 1800's.  James Gee and Michael Levine in their article, Welcome to Our Virtual World, offer a perspective that was unfortunately presenting itself in the early 80's when I was in third grade.  Technology can make learning fun and engaging.  They say, "Digital media hold out the potential to hone the skills necessary for success in our globalized world."  Media alongside an interactive internet allow students to engage with content in a much more engaging way.  Games in particular offer us avenues to give students the experience of what we are trying to teach them.  My teacher could have told me what it was like to cross the country in the 1840's, but  taking my family on a trip and virtually experiencing it is what is in my mind almost 22 years later.  What I also clearly remember about my classroom experience in third grade was when those lessons were over and the computer was shut off.  We only used to play Oregon Trail and now that was over, it was back to overheads and lecture.  Marc Prensk in his work, Students as designers and creators of educational computer games: Who else? offers an interesting approach to this problem.  Their premise is that students can be the ones to create the games in the first place.  They also offer a paradigm to implement these games.  One method being, "a complex game for the entire course."  If the average student plays about an 50 minutes of games per day (source), then we can use the same motivation to teach.  Therefore using video games in the class room is must.  Although the challenges are daunting to implement this in a classroom, the rewards would be greater.
We voluntarily skipped recess to play to Oregon Trail.  What textbook can do that?