Game consoles remain classroom rarity

Complex games, complex learning
Georgetown University's Sandra Calvert, director of the Children's Digital Media Center, a consortium of universities funded by the National Science Foundation, sees "great potential for these games to be used in more constructive ways" than just play.

"Why not use them? Not as the sole way to learn, but as one way," she says.

Prensky says if kids are playing what he describes as "complex" games — like SimCity — that take between eight and 100 hours to complete, they are not only learning the concepts buried in the games, they are learning to cooperate and collaborate, make effective decisions under stress, take prudent risks in pursuit of objectives, make ethical and moral decisions, problem-solve and more.

They are all skills students will need, he says, as they move into their adult lives in a high-tech world.

"The pressure is coming from the kids," he says, to use these tools. So programs are being developed by those who know games and can incorporate content that addresses things like the educational standards teachers must meet under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Brantley says he is always on the lookout for such programs.

"If I'm teaching something, I will ask myself, 'What kind of game can I play?' I tell the kids, 'We're going to grab a Flash application online that's going to show you what a tsunami looks like and its effect on Sri Lanka.' Or it could be the water cycle or metamorphosis."

He says he has compared notes with others teachers at conferences, heard from some who want to add games to their curriculum, and even from a PTA president who wanted to spend her limited funds to buy a couple of Wii systems for her school but needed to know how to approach the administration with the idea. To Brantley, whose principal is totally supportive, it's a no-brainer.

The blogosphere is loaded with chatter about video games in education: "Love it," wrote one person on Barking Robot, a blog that deals with educational media.

"We SO need to incorporate more gaming and tools that students are ALREADY USING into their learning world. It just makes sense."

Dollars and cents
But it may be the cost savings that ultimately convince a school staff to go with games.

There aren't enough computers to go around in many classrooms, and some have none. Games systems like the Wii, with their ability to connect to the Internet, Brantley says, are an inexpensive way to extend the reach, conceivably, to every student in every class.

"If you have a teacher who, on the fly, is talking about some unique animal or sunspots, he might say, 'Hey, let's look it up on the Internet.' " Then, "that leads to something else."

Brantley says that teacher often has to try and cram three or four kids around each classroom computer or, more difficult, hustle them all down to the computer lab, sweet-talk whoever's in there into letting him do a quick lesson and then get the kids back in the classroom.

But with a game system in his classroom or a handheld game device used by every student, or shared between two, the lesson is immediately reinforced and absorbed with a machine the kids already are very adept at using.

"There's no question in my mind and heart that they're learning," he says. "Could they learn another way? Sure, but this is engaging, exciting and fun. When you're engaged, when you're enthusiastic, you're going to learn."