Hi-Tech To Be Added To Educational Games
For some years keen2learn has promoted the benefits of educational games to engage children in the learning process. Recent developments by Futurelab, a tie up between industry, educational and government – and the equivalent of James Bonds Q, have shown the advance of technology in teaching resources.
Educational games have been in use in the classroom for some time. Tracking with the national curriculum they provide essential teaching resources to make lessons memorable, understandable and fun. Recent advances in technology have allowed these teaching resources to be updated but this is an expensive proposition for small educationalist suppliers, many of whom are ex teachers with a great idea. The lower sales volume compared to a retail game has been an issue in making some of the products more financially attractive to schools and parents. This could change with recent developments by Futerlab who could bring state of the art technology used in laboratories into the world of English, maths and science games .
Dr. Breslin at Futerlab is developing an idea in conjunction with the department for children, schools and families, DCSF, to liaise with industry to capture interesting technology into practical learning resources. One of the higher profile projects is investigating how high street computer games, with its obvious entertainment content can be developed as a teaching tool. If this technology could be incorporated into learning resources for the National curriculum it greatly reduce the cost of production of educational games. Similarly greater fun educational content could appear in the high street game versions.
The key to retention in learning is practice; a function that is difficult during the short lesson and abhorrent as homework. Lessons or games which include an element of fun engage children’s attention, enticing them to “learn in disguise”. Educational games with “street cred” played outside the classroom on the journey to school, in the home or with the parents has huge potential in improving learning retention. The work of Dr Breslin and Futurelab could go a long way towards to develop this opportunity.
