sourceFrom next month a New York public school named Quest To Learn will begin teaching pupils using videogames and other ludic sources. Titles like LittleBigPlanet and Civilization are to set to provide conceptual exercises for the children, who won't be expected to leaf through moth-eaten text books for hours on end. The idea is that kids learn more easily, and more enthusiastically, from games because they offer simple to follow rule-based systems that clearly exhibit how different elements interact within a reconisible real-world context. Or as the school's website puts it:
"Through an innovative pedagogy that immerses students in differentiated, challenge-based contexts, the school acknowledges game design and systems thinking as key literacies of the 21st century."
Part funded by the non-profit organisation, Institute of Play as well as various donors (including Intel), the school is only taking on sixth graders at first, but will increase in size on an annual basis. Before you start sending in application forms, it's not just going to be about sitting around playing commercial titles - the school has its own board and card games, and will also use software packages like Maya and Flash to teach modeling and programming skills. It must also meet the educational requirements of any normal school, which means traditional maths and english lessons won't just disappear from the curriculum.
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."
Doesnt seem like a bad idea, wonder how it will work out though sure games are ok if they are used for recreational purposes, but not sure how its gonna work, when you incorporate video games with school might work. Though they are gonna be just like any other school, except they are gonna use games to achieve the criteria. What you think? would you go to such a school?
