More Videogames, Fewer Books at Some Schools?

A News.com article highlights a plan that may please word-weary students: more games, fewer books in some educational settings. That's one plan put forth by some educators who feel that current learning plans don't fully engage today's classes. By offering real-world dilemmas in a virtual setting ('discover why fish are dying in a park'), teachers hope that games will turn kids onto the idea of learning, and eventually lead them back to books. The article covers several of the projects geared towards exploring this idea, as well as research on the subject. "A game designer, Salen is working with a group called New Visions for Public Schools to establish a school in New York City for grades 6 through 12 that would integrate video games into the entire curriculum. 'There's a lot of moral panic about addiction to games. There's a negative public perception, and we know we have to deal with that. But teachers have been using games for years and years.'"

Comments

VR Real thing

[Watson Ladd]

Why doesn't the teacher get an aquarium, put fish in it, and poison them? Are they that scared of actually grading something based on thought, not on the right or wrong answer.

Re:Mod as Funny, not Insightful...

[operagost]

Oregon Trail would be much different if it was created today. First of all, your party would have to be multicultural, even if it meant that no one could understand Paco because he never learned English and Apu starved or fell ill immediately because he's vegetarian. Second, dying would be considered too shocking-- and we wouldn't want the fragile young minds to deal with the concept of "losing"-- so one of the party members would have to be an unstoppable robot from the future that runs on solar power and eco-friendly batteries. Third, the savage "Indian" attacks* would have to replaced by hostile corporatists and oppressive Christian fundamentalists. Finally, the destination would have to be a hippie commune outside San Francisco. Successful settlers would be rewarded with a "Phish" or Blink 182 concert video hidden on the DVD.

* It seems that the version released in the mid 1990s had already replaced the Indians with faceless bandits.