In the early days of the PC in schools, games were almost the only software available thanks largely to the concept of ‘edutainment’ – a mixture of ‘education’ and ‘entertainment’. These software titles, such as Magic Bus, presented a rather second rate entertainment score combined with a little education along the way. Thankfully, and due in no small measure to ELCs, software has moved on a long way since those days and the educational aspect of school software has become more dominant.
Nevertheless, it seems that the entertainment side of school software has refused to die. In fact, in recent months, it seems to have been re-emerging. Witness this article from the BBC about video games in schools and this article from San Francisco. Work in this area seems supported by research from Futurelab.
Most of the work at current, seems to revolve around commercial games in lessons. The alternative would be a game program upon which educational material could be based. This would seem to be the angle being taken at Immersive Education with their work on Mission maker. In this piece of software, pupils or teachers can create characters, scenarios and storylines to support learning.
Other links;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4134530.stm
http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2141251/schools-test-scholarly-value-pc
http://blog.core-ed.net/derek/2006/08/mission_maker.html
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