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Schools test edugaming in classroom
We've spoken ad infinitum on educational gaming, exercise gaming and serious games. It's an important cause and one that can prove mutually beneificial. (For the educators, a new way to teach and motivate children; for the game makers, a feeling of civic duty and another source of income.)Reuters has a rather lengthy piece (with an eye-catching headline) about current efforts to incorporate the interactivity of video games with schooling. Games requiring team effort are presented (Indiana University associate professor Sasha Barab's Quest Atlantis, pictured), as are proponents of using game-related technologies in grades six through 12. The latter, Katie Salen, is speaking at a Living Game Worlds symposium later this month.The article tackles the other side of the issue, that games have been linked (and just as often unlinked) to attention deficit disorder and aggressive behavior. Everything good comes with some consequence. We feel that aspects of the video game technology can outweigh consequences when incorporated with the bad. That, and we're hoping to rekindle our love with a new generation of Math Blasters and Mario Teaches Typing.
Learn Chinese through an MMO
Michigan State University's Confucius Institute is jumping on the virtual education bandwagon with a planned MMO that seeks to teach Mandarin Chinese. Zon -- The New Chengo Chinese will have users advancing from small towns and villages to large cities and "cosmopolitans" as they learn more about China's language and culture. The details on how this will work in a massively multiplayer context are a little unclear, but an Investor's Business Daily article mentions players will be able to interact with other players through business transactions and as tour guides. A design framework for the game claims it will have "1000 learning activities" comprising the equivalent of a "3000-hour Chinese language and culture learning contents." Anyone who thinks that sounds like a lot of time to be playing one game obviously doesn't know many World of Warcraft players. If this trend continues, pretty soon all learning will be conducted through the superior form of the MMO. We can't wait for the math MMO where you have to run around hacking up equations to collect rare numbers like pi and the elusive but highly coveted sword of square root.
Nine year old wins scholarship for edu-game idea
In a marketing stunt to attract attention to their new educational game system, VTech has named nine-year-old Jonathan Fisher their first Chief V.Flash Officer, a position that carries a $10,000 scholarship as compensation. Fisher won the competition for the position with an idea for a game called Mission Possible, which utilizes players' skills in foreign language, geography, social studies and math.The $100 V.Flash, which launched kind of quietly in September, is the latest in a line of educational systems from V-Tech and the first to sport disc-based games and 3D graphics. It's not going to challenge the big three for console supremacy or anything, but it might make a nice alternative for thrifty parents who want to satisfy their little kids console cravings on the cheap.
