One obvious advantage to using a system like Nintendo’s 3DS is its ability to engage students in learning, some education technology advocates say; students no longer would have to “power down” to go to school.
3-D technology is ushering in an era when “there will be less sitting back and watching television, and a more immersive, interactive experience,” said Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America, in an interview with the New York Times.
“Good education is good education, so whether games are involved or not is not the issue,” said Kurt Squire, assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in an interview with eSchool News. Squire is a research scientist at the Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Lab and is a co-founder and current director of the Games, Learning, & Society Initiative, a group of more than 50 faculty and students investigating game-based learning.
“However, games do provide a way to engage students in learning,” he said.
The key to making any game-based curriculum effective, whether or not it’s available in 3-D, said Squire, is to make sure the games are based on curriculum objectives and involve more than simple rote memorization.
“It’s really all about the content,” said Squire. “3-D will really benefit education if it’s relevant to the subject—for example, a 3-D version of the human body for biology, or seeing how a plane flies for physics. However, right now there is a significant cost increase involved with making content 3-D, as well as a need for a common graphics standard.”
Squire believes large-scale adoption of educational gaming—3-D included—will split between larger districts that are pressured to perform owing to programs such as Race to the Top, and districts that are not under the same amount of scrutiny.
“For those districts under pressure, the supplemental services market could really take off, providing tools and games for after-school or AP classes. For districts not under pressure, gaming adoption will depend on the teachers and whether or not the teacher embraces the idea of gaming,” said Squire.
Squire said his team is currently developing an augmented reality gaming app that uses GPS and wireless technology. They’re also developing a Flash-based game.
“With time, issues involving price and design standards will get better. … You just have to keep in mind that the content has to be high quality and not just there because it’s 3-D. You also have to think about special-needs students, as well as the stress of standardized tests on class time,” Squire said.
Links:
The Games, Learning, & Society Initiative
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