EA have announced a new study in conjunction with NESTA Futurelab that aims to put computer games into European classrooms. The project will begin with trials in select secondary schools in the U.K. next month, that will see what kids can learn from games and what changes might be needed to introduce games to the classroom environment.
The press release announcing the study points to the intellectual challenge and stimulation games give compared to other media and mentions the study could give developers some guidelines on how to create games that do well in the educational market:
There has been a lot of interest in using computer games for learning but to date no one has really investigated what young people might be able to learn from games and how they might best be introduced in schools. We propose to do this by working closely with teachers and students to design new support materials for use with commercial games. We will evaluate the success of these materials and identify aspects of games that developers could make more relevant to an educational environment. This way we will begin to produce a road map for educators across Europe and go some way to being able to help game developers understand how they could produce games that are well-received in the educational market.
EA launches computer games study with NESTA Futurelab via Guardian Gamesblog
Related:
About NESTA Futurelab
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Playstation Added to California School Curriculum
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The Educational Aspect of Computer Games
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