Tonight's homework…play your Wii
How far away are we in education from actually having computer games that attract students? I want to know of the first school that stops looking at computer games and starts looking at Wii and PS3 as a way for students to learn in a digital world. From the Detroit Free Press comes an article “Games of learning take action to lure kids.” All I can say is…it’s about time!
Has anyone looked at educational games lately? I find them boring and I don’t have a Wii or PS3 waiting for me at home or under the Christmas Tree. According to the article:
“They’re using techniques that mainstream commercial games are using in order to catch kids’ interest and hold their interest, but coupling that with educational theory and educational content,” said Ethan Watrall, an assistant professor of information studies and media at Michigan State University who’s a researcher with MSU’s Games for Entertainment and Learning Lab.
Gee there’s a concept. Games can have a place in education but it’s no the Reader Rabbits and Oregon Trail that we need to be playing in the computer lab. The article talks about Dimenxian. Go watch the trailer. Now if I’d of had a game like that in high school, I might of actually done well in math. I love the tag line “Homework just got harder.” Wouldn’t this be a cool homework tool? Learn concepts in class and then go home and practice those concepts along with others you might not have learned yet in a game environment? What if you rewrote your curriculum to match teaching Algebra skills as students need them in the game? Now that would be cool! I can picture it now, a score sheet on the wall in the classroom where students keep track of where they are in the game. Another wall chart that has tips and tricks. Can you imagine the conversation in that math class?
Now that’s education!
[tags]gaming[/tags]
Learning and Teaching Scotland have somebody who is responsible for trialling games consoles of all sorts in our schools.
He is Derek Robertson and this is his blog.