So the situation is this: I am a junior high ELA teacher and I want to bring some videogames into the classroom. What I have to work with are the students Chromebooks. At first glance, I figured I’d throw some short, playable without install games on some flash drives and we could play through whatever game it is, and then talk about it like any other short story. Bring in the relevant terms, connect it to the course outcomes, easy. Then I began to learn the limitations of Chromebooks and how challenging it can be to run Windows .exe’s on them, or find games that run natively on a Chromebook without installing.

Getting the rights to install anything on these devices is functionally out of the question. The request would have to go through the school board. Even if they agree that it’s a good idea, the practicality of giving me the rights to install things without opening it up so the students can install things and without consuming an inordinate amount of class time in just setting up is unlikely. Ideally, I need games that can run on a Chromebook without running an install, or games that run in browser.

I’m googling around and considering emulator options. If anyone has experience in playing games in these circumstances, I’d love some options and insights. Additionally if people have recommendations for games that would be particularly good (narrative focused), I’d love to hear them. It’s 2023; these kids don’t need to learn what conflict is through short stories written by white men in the 1920s. With all the push towards student-focused learning and differentiated education, I want to start giving them choice and breadth in how they take in these concepts.

Thanks in advance for anyone who gives me their time and expertise on this.