GameSpark

We couldn't be happier to see an influx of news stories emphasizing the importance of math, science, and technology education. It seems President Obama shares in our enthusiasm! Recently he rewarded TechBoston Academy – a high-performing 6th-12th school with ties to Microsoft, Google, and IBM – with a visit and a speech:

“I'm calling for investments in...educational software that is as compelling as the best video game. I want you guys to be stuck on a video game that's teaching you something other than just blowing something up.”

With Obama's speech in mind, Huffington Post columnist Alan Gershenfeld examines the growing interest in game-based learning, weighing the benefits against the challenges. The verdict?

“Games can help make learning more engaging, relevant and give students real agency in ways that static textbooks simply cannot....[they] can help teachers manage large classes with widely divergent student capabilities and learning styles...foster critical skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, systems thinking, digital media literacy, creativity and collaboration...Games are also capital efficient, [and] can be deployed, scaled, updated and optimized at a fraction of the per student cost of most textbooks.”

The main obstacle, according to Gershenfeld, is the development process: it's challenging to design games that live up to their full learning potential and are easy for teachers and students to adopt.

He has a point, but we think this is all good news. Read the full article here.