Educators increasingly are using sophisticated computer games to snag and hold the interest of the "digital natives" in their classrooms, but some teachers have trouble accepting the educational value of making learning fun. This obstacle cannot be found in the cutting-edge learning environments described in this report, starting with one game-augmented course that has kids learning before they even know it.

Profit and loss ... PowerPoint ... spreadsheets ... typing practice: This junior high school business class could have given a case of the yawns to a buttoned-down executive, not to mention the kids.

To University of Wyoming professor Liz Simpson, what the students needed was something many teachers wouldn't even whisper about: a computer game-and not one designed for education, but solely for self-indulgent, time-consuming entertainment at home.

Simpson and a growing number of educators say that such computer games-"Restaurant Empire," in this case-can make school more engaging for today's "digital natives" who have never known a world without the internet, cell phones, text messaging, and Sony PlayStations.

Far from rotting the brains of the Laramie, Wyo., Junior High School business students, she says, the game jolted them into enthusiasm about tracking profits on spreadsheets and typing up journals on running a business. They even peppered a pizzeria owner with questions more typical of restaurant industry insiders than early teenagers, like how he thought the furniture and art he chose for his restaurant could help the business.

"We're on the leading edge of change, bringing a new tool into the classroom and responding to learner differences that have evolved with technology," Simpson said.

Her argument goes like this: Youngsters nowadays can find online anything they need to know, any time. That renders the old teacher's saw, "Someday you'll need to know this," less convincing than ever. But with a computer game, relevance to life becomes incidental; students need to learn in order to play the game in front of them.

"Kids want the information when they need the information," she said. "So they would say, 'Why is this not matching up?' And we would say, 'Well, is it your net profit or your gross profit?' And they're going, 'Well, what is that?' OK, boom! Now I can tell you."

Working in groups of three, the students used "Restaurant Empire" to create virtual restaurants, tending to details like training the wait staff and calculating whether sushi would turn a profit. They had to write reports and use Microsoft Excel to track the numbers. They also divvied up business responsibilities within their groups.

"It makes the class more interesting," said Hannah Smith, a tenth-grader who was in the class last year. "You don't have to listen to the teacher talk all the time. You don't have to look at a book all day."

Janet Johnson, who taught the business class after returning from a 19-year absence from teaching, said she found out quickly that keeping students' attention is much harder than it used to be. "When you can go home on a computer and build a zoo from 'Zoo Tycoon,' sitting and learning Excel is pretty mundane," she said.