A new public school is to open in New York next month, which will use video games and software packages such as LittleBigPlanet and Maya to teach its pupils, as well as board and card games.Named Quest To Learn, and funded by non-profit organisation Institute of Play, the idea is that children will find it easier and more enjoyable to learn from the interactive experience provided by games. However the school will still have to meet the same requirements as any other New York school, so traditional math and English lessons haven't just disappeared.
A look at the sample curriculum reveals the use of familiar games and applications such as LittleBigPlanet, Fl0w, Spore, Flash, Photoshop, Maya and Google Earth.
According to Metropolis Magazine, the school is even going to use gaming structure and terminology. Each child in a class of 20 to 25 will have access to a laptop and will attend four 90-minute sessions a day devoted to "domains" like "Codeworlds" (math and English), "The Way Things Work" (math and science) and "Being, Space and Place" (history and geography), rather than studying individual subjects. Each of these "domains" will end with a test that is aptly called a "Boss Level."
Quest To Learn will only be taking on sixth graders when it opens next month, but expects to grow annually.
Google Earth has Wall Hacks O_o
Anyways, this seems very cool.
But this is a school of learning from game like tools.
I mean I believe it because we use Second Life at our university as a teaching tool, and I get to build the stuff
When you don't like the methods a school uses, don't put your kids there.. isn't it just that simple?
When you don't like the methods a school uses, don't put your kids there.. isn't it just that simple?
you'd think it was but parents like to put kids into situations like that just to complain about it...
When you don't like the methods a school uses, don't put your kids there.. isn't it just that simple?
you'd think it was but parents like to put kids into situations like that just to complain about it...
+1000000 on this.
need tank and healer
need tank and healer
need tank and healer
Aww, I really don't want to pug this one....
They're also opening up Ghostbusters University in Staten Island!
you run faster with a knife
While what they're trying is obviously an experiment, the part I don't like is that they're not telling us *Why*. What do they hope to learn from this -- not the kids, but the people behind it? Intel for example is contributing money... are they interested in better training methods for tech people, something that might lead to a marketing edge, increasing PC use etc?
They sell it as being just for the kids' benefit, in part at least because how many parents would volunteer their children to be Guinna Pigs? But where is the data? Their site's Research Library features mostly magazine articles -- not scientific studies. And at a time when by far the majority of the education community worldwide is trying to limit kids' PC & console gaming. Maybe this is just for a marketing *push back*? Maybe this leads to a line of software for home schooling? However you look at it, trading your kids' education so they can be unpaid beta testers is most likely not in their best interests.
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