Teachers Want Games In The Classrooms

eToyChest reports on a study indicating that over 50% of UK teachers would consider using educational games in the classroom. From the article: "The Poll findings also highlight some barriers to the use of games in schools, noting a lack of access to equipment capable of running the games as well as a lack of strong evidence of the educational value of games, an issue of focus for the Teaching with Games project. The appropriate choice and suitability of computer games to be used was also noted by respondents. Despite over one quarter playing computer games themselves, around two-thirds still felt, for example, that computer games may present stereotypical views of others and lead to anti-social behaviour."

Oh!! The Pretty Graphics!

[therage96]

I swear I just read an article this week that stated that the latest studies have shown educational games not to be effective in learning due to students being distracted by the "pretty graphics" and sounds.

Oh well, I always thought Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego [wikipedia.org] was fun.

Nostalgia: Educational video games

[MobyDisk]

I had computer games in the classroom when I was in 1st grade in 1984. Perhaps the perception of games has changed? I rather enjoyed playing verb lift, and getting to shoot aliens every time I correctly answered some math problem. Maybe now the problem is that kids get to destroy demons and rescue princesses too young. Is the magic and motivational factor is gone by the time they are ready to learn?

This post is right on...

[DeionXxX]

My wife just because a high school math teacher a couple months ago, and she's always saying how she'd like some multiplayer computer or xbox/ps2/gc games for review days. She's looking for math related (Algebra / Geometry) games that the whole classroom can play together either on individual computers, or using the projector + a game console. She's bought some games from online that claim to have some of these features, but they're all really poorly done. She played the new trivial pursuit on the PS2 recently and liked how that was layed out, but it's not related to her topic.

If anyone knows or uses anything like what she's describing, please post a reply so we can check it out.