School made fun: New York public school to teach children with video games

Posted Jun 23, 2007 at 5:56PM by QJ Staff Listed in: Wii, PS3, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PC Gaming Tags: GameLab, New York
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Games sure are more educational than Barbie - Image 1Ever wished playing video games was allowed in school? No need to keep it secret; we know that even the do-gooder type of gamers fantasize about learning math with Mario or flora with Aeris. Fortunately for the young, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation dished out some dough to fund a New York City public school planning to use games for teaching literacy and other skills.

The school, accepting students from grades 6 through 12, is expected to open its doors come fall 2009. For now, nonprofit organizations Gamelab Institute of Play, together with New Visions for Public Schools will be working on how to make an educational institution incorporating “game design and game-inspired methods." Game designers, literacy experts, and educators will help out to make sure that the system will be effective. Curriculum will also be made to reach NYC graduation standards.

New Visions president Robert Hughes mentioned that they want to “re-imagine the traditional school from top to bottom.” He also hopes that "gaming literacy" can produce competent children that will be successful in college and their future careers. Playing MGS games to become effective politicians sounds pretty good.

Gamelab Institute of Play executive director Katie Salen wants the school to offer a learning experience similar to the process of making, sharing, and playing games. "All players in the school – teachers, students, parents and administrators – will be empowered to innovate using 21st century literacies that are native to games and design,” she said. Parents encouraging you to be a gamer while studying - it can't get any better.

According to her, learning from game design's perspective means:

to think about the world as a set of in interconnected systems that can be affected or changed through action and choice, the ability to navigate complex information networks, the power to build worlds and tell stories, to see collaboration in competition, and communicate across diverse social spaces.


Sounds too brainy? Learning how to make friends by getting your hands on The Sims or practicing your building skills with SimCity doesn't seem bad at all.

Via Gamasutra

 
 
 

Comments

by - 2007-06-23 18:25:12
omg

that is som lucky shiz man i wish i was in there shiz im in 10 th gr 6 to 12 wow who ever joinnes must have the time of there life
by - 2007-06-24 04:46:32
not for long

This only lasts until Jackie T gets ahold of it, then the moral majority will be all over them like white on rice.
by CHUCKINGROCKSATSPACESHIPS - 2007-06-24 05:59:29
That Picture

Who says you need a wii to get active when playing video games. Thats a pretty good picture.
by - 2007-06-24 08:57:40
Same...

lol I thought the same thing when I saw that picture ^_^
by - 2007-06-24 09:01:51
PlayStation 3 Vs. Xbox 360’s Best Game (Halo 3)

Never post any news articles regarding to Halo 3 from now on, period. I f+cking care nothing about garbage like Crapalo 3 or Halo 2.5 or Halo 2 Episode 1. This is a flat fact that there’re 200 games or so which are better than Halo 3 in terms of graphics, sound, music, gameplay, multiplay, single-play, and replay value (longevity). * World of StarCraft (WoS – MMORPG genre): go to google.com -> click ‘images’ button to do image searching -> type ‘World of StarCraft’ -> you can see 2 exclusive pictures. Back in early 2006, Blizzard gave an exclusive interview about WoS and these 2 in-game pictures of WoS to GameSpot. About 1 week later, Blizzard requested GameSpot to remove all information on WoS because WoS was in very early and immature stages. * Call of Duty 5: Infinity Ward makes CoD 2 and 4; Infinity Ward has been making CoD 4 since Dec. 2005. Treyarch makes CoD 3 and 5; Treyarch has been making CoD 5 since Jan. 2007. CoD 2, 3, 4, and 5 games’ publisher is Activision (Activision decided which version will be made by which developer). * Jak & Dexter Next-Gen: Naughty Dog is currently making Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Jak & Dexter at the same time. Gears of War 2, MotorStorm 2, Doom Wars, Ninja Gaiden 2, Black 2, Wolfenstein Next-Gen, Dead Rising 2, Dead or Alive 5, Resistance 2, Beowulf Next-Gen, Knight of the Old Republic 3 (all of the above games’ existence is widely and publicly known; however, never officially confirmed) Killzone 2 God of War 3 Resident Evil 5 StarCraft Ghost Next-Gen Heavy Rain Jak & Dexter Next-Gen Turok Bioshock MotorStorm Gears of War Unreal Tournament 3 Crysis Haze Army of Two Ratchet & Clank Future: ToD Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Fable 2 Devil May Cry 4 Gran Turismo 5 Folklore Virtua Fighter 5 StarCraft 2 Eight Days 2 Days 2 Vegas Cipher Complex WarDevil Final Fantasy XIII White Knight Story Earth No More Interstellar Marines Call of Duty 5 The Chronicles of Ridd+ck: AoDA The Crossing Project Offset Battlefield: Bad Company Warhawk Age of Conan: HA Global Agenda Heavenly Sword Grand Theft Auto 4 Fifth Phantom Saga Team Fortress 2 Call of Duty 4 The Settlers Alone in the Dark Brothers in Arms: HH Time0 Timeshift Next-Gen Fatal Inertia Forza Motorsport 2 Splinter Cell: Conviction Soul Caliber 4 Getaway Afrika Hydrophobia Max Payne 3 Duke Nukem Forever Deus Ex Next-Gen Silent Hill 5 EndWar Indiana Jones Next-Gen World of StarCraft Condemned 2: Bloodshot Monster Hunter 3 Star Wars Battlefront 3 StarWars: FU Lost Planet 2: Colonies Company of Heroes: OF Final Fantasy versus XIII The Last Remnant Golden Axe Next-Gen Kingdom Hearts 3 Civilization IV: BtS The Club The Outsider Stalker 2 Guitar Hero III Stranglehold The Darkness Kane & Lynch: DM Elveon Tekken 6 Medal of Honor: Airborne Half Life 2: Ep 2 Ninja Gaiden Sigma Alan Wake Saboteur Metal Gear Solid 4 Spore Dark Sector World in Conflict SEGA Rally Revo Assassin's Creed Project Gotham Racing 4 Enemy Territory: QW Burnout Paradise The Agency The Wall FEAR the 2nd GhostBusters Next-Gen Lost Odyssey Eve Online 2: Revelations Lair Halo Wars Ace Combat 6 Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Supreme Commander Mass Effect Fracture Left 4 Dead WoW: BC Blue Dragon Portal SimCity Societies Universe At War Eternal Sonata Frontlines: FoW Mercenaries 2 Dark Messiah of M&M 2 Midnight Club Next-Gen Huxley Too Human SOCOM Confrontation Resistance: FoM EverQuest II: EoF Warhammer Online * (There’re 75 more games in between; I just can’t list them all here due to the limitation of writing space) Halo 3 Theseis Overlord Halo 2 (Win Vista) Shadowrun See, this? There’s almost countless number of games which are better than Halo 3 in all respects. Why should I waste even 5 minutes to play Crapalo 3 when there’re 200 better games? It just makes no-sense at all. Kids, use your common sense because X360 fanboys can never think and rationalize with clear and unbiased mind.
by Jobo50 - 2007-06-24 09:37:49
Go fck yourself, please.

See? I asked nicely. Now... First of all, WTF are you posting this ***** here for? The article is about a gaming school... Second of all, I would WAY rather play Halo 2/3 over Sega Rally Revo... Third of all... Why the hell is Halo Wars, Halo 2, and Halo 3 in that posting you just made?! You just complained about it being the worst games ever... yet they're in the list of "Better games then the halo series" And lastly, people don't play the Halo series for the graphics, they play it for the gameplay, because IT'S FUN. Now like I said again, go fck yourself, Please?
by - 2007-06-24 18:50:56
Hahaha, go home.

Yeah? Why the hell do you post crap about stuff that is "better" than Halo 3 everywhere? I think I've seen you post something similar to this a couple months back. When you say "There%u2019s almost countless number of games which are better than Halo 3 in all respects." all I can do is laugh. Why? because Halo is nothing like a SIM CITY or a WoW or a SOUL CALIBUR. You are comparing Halo with very different genre types. Not to say that Halo is or isn't a good game, I personally never got into it. I just had to stop by and say wow, almost the whole list you pasted are not released yet. BTW, "best" is an opinionated term. Stop using it to justify what you say like it automatically makes fact or something. Bye.

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