<!--
	Title: (BEHIND THE SCREENS: PEOPLE, NEWS, AND TRENDS) Reading, Writing, and... Zork?
	Author: Linda Williams
	Source: Family Computing, v2(12)
	Date: December 1984
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<figure class="float-left">
<img src="/public/img/articles/family-computing-reading-writing-zork/infocom-field-trip.jpg" alt="Children listening to Marc Blank on a field trip to the Infocom offices">
	<figcaption><strong>Erving School students enjoy high-tech talk with
		Infocom game writers.</strong>
</figure>

School's an adventure in Millers Falls, Massachusetts, where Micki
Siegel and Mike Lipinski, fifth- and sixth-grade teachers at Erving
Elementary School, use Infocom "interactive-fiction" games to teach reading,
writing, and organizational skills.

In these games, a player takes the role of the main character, typing
instructions — where to walk, what to pick up. etc. To solve them, you
have to think logically, plan, and use ingenuity — plus, you have to use
correct spelling and grammar.

"All the skills — mapping, directionality, reading for understanding —
that the children would ordinarily learn by other methods can be done
through the games." Lipinski said.

"You learn how to make your own decisions, how to do it on your own
without the help of adults," said sixth-grader Cherie Willoughby. "You
have to keep going back to places you've been and objects you've
found, and asking yourself "What's the purpose of that?' and then figuring
out exactly how to use it."

When the Erving classes got stumped in figuring out one game,
*Deadline*, they wrote to Infocom for hints. The company offered help,
and also sent its first "junior adventure," *Seastalker*, which was still in
the testing stage. "They sent evaluation forms for the kids to fill out —
and the kids were very perceptive about what the game was lacking."
said Siegel.

Infocom later invited the classes on a field trip to its Cambridge
headquarters, where the students spent a day with the company's
programmers.
