With the intention of revolutionizing current pedagogy, Microsoft Corp. is bringing researchers and businesses together to develop a game-based computer learning environment to be used by classroom teachers.

The idea behind this partnership—known as the Learning Federation—is to take the same video-game technology that lets you virtually fly airplanes or build amusement parks, and use it for educational purposes.

"There's a very strong attraction to video games, and it crosses age and ... culture," said Randy Hinrichs, group research manager for learning and science technology at Microsoft and principal founder of the Learning Federation.

So, Hinrichs figures, why not use this attraction to engage students in learning activities?

The Learning Federation plans to make "significant investments" to do just that, but Hinrichs estimates it will be at least five years before the group is finished.

Currently, the federation is recruiting members to participate before it starts funding any research projects. Corporations are invited to join for $100,000 each.

Microsoft, however, has already teamed up with several academic partners, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to build some prototypes. MIT's Games to Teach Project is Microsoft's largest, long-term current investment, funded at approximately half a million dollars a year.

MIT already has produced a few prototypes. Hinrichs has been demonstrating them at conferences to get feedback from educators.

One CD focuses on a bio-hazard attack in a city and how an emergency team would respond. Another CD explores engineering principles as students have to rebuild the world on another planet after Earth is evacuated. A third one has students build houses in unusual places, such as under the ocean or suspended in air.

As in popular computer games, students can use different "virtual" tools, like a crane, to help complete their quest. They can also consult virtual experts to give them pointers.

Microsoft is developing this "next-generation learning environment" in the research arena because this eliminates profitability pressures, Hinrichs said. If researchers build a prototype and it doesn't work, they can just throw it away without much harm done, he said.

Also, Hinrichs hopes educators will adopt this learning tool more readily if it is developed by researchers rather than a corporation like Microsoft. "If MIT can't build it, then who can?" he said.

Microsoft is also funding similar projects at Brown University, Georgia Tech, and the University of Southern California.

Other independent research projects also exist in this field. With a $1 million National Science Foundation grant, representatives from Nobel Learning Communities, Harvard University, George Mason University, and the Smithsonian Institution have worked together to determine what impact—if any—the gaming environment has on learning. For this project, researchers built a computer-based bicycle simulation that incorporated historical content from the Smithsonian. (See http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=2848 for more information.)