June 2004
Education Arcade
By Sally Atwood
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/atwood0604.asp?trk=nl

With the Less than 50% news still in mind, I was most happy this morning to find this article via MIT’s Technology Review Friday newsletter. The short of it is as follows…

MIT researchers are creating academically driven computer games that rival commercial products and make learning fun.

…

Hi-Tech Who Done It! is part of a research project called the Education Arcade that aims to make computer and video games a valuable component of teaching. The undertaking is a collaboration between MIT and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and will ultimately bring together a consortium of educators, game designers, publishers, and policymakers to develop sophisticated games that range from quick demonstrations that illustrate points made in lectures to semester-long projects that support the content of courses. The educational games will be aimed at motivating high-school students or helping advanced-high-school or first-year college students learn complex concepts. Teachers will also benefit, as the Education Arcade is developing a website that will serve as a clearinghouse for lesson plans coordinated with existing commercial games, projects and programs to help students learn to create games, and online forums where teachers can share best practices with their peers.

The longer of it is that I am thrilled to learn that education and technology are being pushed in this way and am sad to think how long it will take to get this into real, regular schools. My daughter’s public elementary school is still not over the thrill of being able to say that they have a couple of computers per class as well as a computer room, all linked to the internet. And my son will have his first "computer class" next year in secondary 3 (grade 9). A step at a time though.