Well it looks like the DS finally has caught on with at least one school – and in Japan to boot – Thanks to Wade for the heads up.
At just one-fifteenth of the cost of a personal computer — around 17,000 yen (150 dollars) each — the DS is an economical teaching tool, he said, adding that results in an initial trial showed the English vocabulary of junior high school students using the DS had soared by 40 percent.
The private Otemon Gakuin Elementary School in the western metropolis of Osaka used Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) from last September to March this year in a class of 38 fourth-graders, aged nine or 10.
Teacher Toyokazu Takeuchi did not need to print out or check tests. Instead, his own console received real-time data showing which students were making mistakes and what mistakes they were making.
“This is e-learning made in Japan — traditional efforts in reading, writing and calculating coupled with the power of information technology and game machines,” he said.
With the pilot programme wrapped up, Takeuchi plans to expand the use of PSPs to second graders from April next year. If the project is extended, it would cover some 800 students in Osaka.
While the education ministry says it has no policy on using game consoles in the classroom, this new application has come as a pleasant surprise for the machine makers.
Kenichi Fukunaga, vice president for external relations at Sony Computer Entertainment, said he believed the educational uses would spread further, as game consoles were easy-to-use, high-performance machines.
There was still some tough opposition to game machines, he said, but added: “In every era parents have worried over a new medium they cannot understand but their children are absorbed in.”
Hirai, the teacher, said game consoles could be put to use in developing countries.
“You don’t have to print sheet after sheet with a copier. If you can just secure a source of electricity, you can build your basic academic ability on your own.
“This is a revolution in education in that you can learn basic things without teachers who blindly believe their only mission is to direct children to study.”
While I think there may be a certain element of “learning because of novelty” here, I do agree that”it matches the kids” and I also think that things like this open up the entire debate between Clark (1983) and Kozma (1991&1994).
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