Imagine this kind of math.  War is raging all around you and you have one bullet left in your clip.  You fire that last shot as enemies are getting closer.  You feel for extra clips, but cannot find any.  You throw down your weapon and pull out your pistol as a last resort.  You know you already fired two shots and your pistol can only handle six bullets at a time.  How many bullets are left?  If you said four bullets than congratulations, UK’s Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove would be proud.

Gove is currently pushing the UK’s government to allow video games into the classroom, because he feels that kids can relate more to figuring out equation involving one of their favorite past times, rather than the standard text book questions.

“When children need to solve equations in order to get more ammo to shoot the aliens, it is amazing how quickly they can learn.  I am sure that this field of educational games has huge potential for maths and science teaching and I know that Marcus has been thinking about how he might be able to create games to introduce advanced concepts to children at a much earlier stage…” ~ Michael Gove, UK Secretary of State for Education

Gove is working with the Stanford Research Institute here in the states and Hong Kong’s Li Ka Shing Foundation overseas to make video games that will help students in a classroom setting excel in their math and science studies.  Gove says that since techonolgy is changing, the way that teachers teach their students need to adapt as well.

“We need to change curricula, tests and teaching to keep up with technology.  These developments are only the beginning…The new environment of teaching schools will be a fertile ecosystem for experimenting and spreading successful ideas rapidly through the system..” ~ Michael Gove, UK Secretary of State for Education

What do you think?  Would video games in the classroom be beneficial to students or would the games prove to be more of a distraction and possibly cause a drop in grades?

via Edge

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If it is a carrot for the kids and the game is fun then yes it can be a teaching tool, I mean I remember Oregon Trail it was fun and educational. Also the only reason I got into computers was becasue I wanted to get the game to work, and now I work on computers for a living. So if it is done right it can be beneficial and would most likely get kids to want to do their homework.

I played Oregon Trail in 8th grade and it was honestly the best part of jr high.

It's proven that children tend to learn the most when it's turned into an activity/game/entertainment and immerse themselves in the material. Look at Sesame Street for television. Tons of people thought that television was terrible and detrimental to learning but Sesame Street changed that. I'm honestly waiting for gaming to reach that threshold.

We do learn things faster if we are interested in the subject and/or method. Im not sure about teaching children via how many lives they can destroy with a bullet. Im sure something else could be thought up.

Since Atari, there's been games aimed at kids, labeled under "learning". It goes up to today's consoles, and even extends to things like LeapFrog (which my son had).

I hope they didn't fund a study for this. They could have asked any American if they thought it was a good idea. lol

hehe I remember leapfrog. I wanted one but it was too much. =) Memories.