The Education Arcade is a research group founded by members of MIT and the gaming world and aims at investigating the various ways games may be used for learning. The current charge for the Education Arcade is how to make such games more accessible to users. Apparently, educational games are difficult to fund. They have proven to be miserable investments in terms of retail sales, and we all know the story as far as funding goes in academic settings...educational institutions are not known for lavish spending, particularly in our current economic climate.The Educational Arcade website showcases a list of white papers investigating best practices in teaching through games. One such white paper was mentioned In a recent New York Times article titled, "At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the Blackboard". Author Sara Rimer, writes about the way most students learn fundamental concepts more successfully, and are better able to apply them, through interactive, collaborative, student-centered learning.
In addition, there is a link on the education Arcade website to, "Projects", that is definitely worth checking out. Projects range from language and science learning games to augmented reality and simulation games, including one called, "Environmental Detectives". This game uses GPS technology to lead students through a virtual toxic spill, and challenges users to find the source of the catastrophy.
Here at Saint Mary's College, we are making great strides toward providing greater levels of on-line presence for the classes we offer. The numbers of faculty using LMS systems such as Blackboard,and Moodle are increasing and the complexity of curriculum offered from within course sites is also expanding rapidly. Many classes are utilizing add-on's to Blackboard that allow faculty to enable wiki's, podcasting and blogging tools from within Blackboard, and students have had a very positive response to them. Still, it remains to be seen if the use of games as an additional on-line learning tool will be the next level of innovation here at Saint Mary's College. We shall see! In the mean time, check out the Education Arcade for the latest innovations in educational games.
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