Scientist: Video Games can be educational

http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/10....ap/index.html

(Mods: Posted here because I felt this should have a general discussion, rather than just amongst gamers. I'm sure almost everyone here is anyway, but I'd like to see what non-hardcore gamers have to say as well).

Having grown up on games, I'd have to say that this would certainly help people in school. Granted, it'll be difficult to make an educational game fun and at the same time teach something you'd want to learn in school, but I believe this would make school a lot more fun and interesting.

Imagine if instead of just reading a book on the American Revolution, you could enter a virtual world where you could see that stuff unfolding, and watch battles as they take place (of course, they'd have to be close to historical accuracy for the schools to take them seriously).

Or a math question like "If the Revolutionary Army has 400 soldiers, and loses 158 soldiers in this battle, how many soldiers will they have left?" or a banking simulator, "If you invested your $100 at an annual 4% interest rate, how much money will you make in a year? What if the bank had 6.5% interest?"

Another thing that I found interesting was "Typing of the Dead" (this wasn't in the article, just my own personal comment), which was House of the Dead, but instead of a gun, the monsters had words, and you had to type out the words to "kill" them. While it sounds like a ridiculous concept, I have to admit it made learning to type fun (the game also records how well/fast you type, and which letters you have trouble with, and helps you to focus on those letters if you want to). I'd have to admit that playing this game, along with playing MMORPG's and using IM's has helped my typing a lot more than the typing class I took in high school.

Of course, there are a lot more possibilities, but I think used properly, it could help to reshape education. A lot of people already do gaming, so why not do it for education? It'll take a lot of creativity of course, but if done properly, this could actually make going to school fun.

Jam it back in, in the dark.