Michael Gove, the UK secretary of state for education, has said that videogames have "huge potential" to aid the study of maths and science in the nation's classrooms.
In a speech to the Royal Society in London last week, Gove pointed to the works of Marcus du Sautoy, professor of mathematics at Oxford University and an advisor to maths games website Manga High. He said: "When children need to solve equations in order to get more ammo to shoot the aliens, it is amazing how quickly they can learn.
"I am sure that this field of educational games has huge potential for maths and science teaching and I know that Marcus has been thinking about how he might be able to create games to introduce advanced concepts to children at a much earlier stage."
Gove's department of education is working with Hong Kong's Li Ka Shing Foundation, and the Stanford Research Institute in the US, to develop computer games to help teach maths, with Gove claiming: "Stanford say it is one of the most successful educational projects they have seen." He also commends iTunesU and the Khan Academy for their pioneering work in the use of technology in education.
"We need to change curricula, tests and teaching to keep up with technology," he said. "These developments are only the beginning...The new environment of teaching schools will be a fertile ecosystem for experimenting and spreading successful ideas rapidly through the system.
"We unequivocally believe that maths and science education are at the heart of improving our society and our economy."
Gove's comments highlight once again the shortcomings in the way the UK administers the teaching of science and maths. A Nesta report, co-authored by Eidos life president Ian Livingstone and published in February, made twenty recommendations to government as it sought to address the inadequacies in the way the curriculum prepares students for careers in the digital and creative industries.
That review's loudest call was for computer science to replace ICT in the curriculum, a call repeated in April by UK trade association UKIE. Some industry veterans are taking different approaches to getting games into the classroom: in May, Elite creator David Braben revealed Raspberry Pi, a $25 PC which he hopes will help children "understand the whole process of programming"; Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, meanwhile, last month unveiled the Speed To Learn project, which uses motion-sensing software and is "aimed at changing the way kids learn, both in and out of school."
The government announced its review of the national curriculum in January, with Gove saying: "The pace of economic and technological change is accelerating and our children are being left behind." Led by the department of education and supported by an advisory committee and expert panel of teachers, academics and industry, it intends to have the new curriculum in place in September 2013.
Source: Royal Society
Image credit: Paul Clarke
Comments
4Whiffs of gimmickry. Exploiting new developments in technology for education seems sound enough, but I'd worry it comes at the expense of the subject and the rigour of its assessment. Which is, hitsorically, how this sort of bandwagon-jumping has always worked. After all, maths hasn't changed in itself and dressing it up in fairy lights doesn't make it that much easier.
The real failure in education isn't the kids' motivation but the schools' motivation - they are, thanks to free-market idealogues like Gove, now more interested in filling quotas and meeting targets for cold hard cash than they are in inspiring a genuine love of knowledge for the betterment of society.
Also, Gove looks like he melted while standing inside a wind-tunnel.
Did the people responsible for the cover of the last issue of Edge do the background for that pic?
Yeah, we're not quite sure what to think about our sense of style matching that of the Conservative Party.
I think you meant to say: "You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment."