Futurelab, a UK company seemingly devoted to studying the potential usage of video games on education, has recently concluded a study on just this subject, and declares that the future looks bright.

The project is called Teaching With Games and has the support of Take Two, EA, Microsoft, and the ISFE.

"I can definitely see the potential of using games in the classroom. It proved to be a great tool for motivating students and engaging their interest. I would like to use games for teaching in the future if the technical problems could be addressed," commented Claire Gemmell, a teacher at St John's School & Community College in Marlborough. The technical problems she's referring to involved licensing and copy protection issues that prevented some teachers from easily installing the software or running the games on school networks.

Games in the study included RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, Sims 2, and Knights of Honor.

I personally have been a proponent of regular old gaming (as opposed to educational games, which usually suck) as learning tool since I realized how savagely I fought to acquire the reading skills necessary to play adventure games when I was wee.

Games are set up to reward learning just as a basic tenet of play, so they're already ideal forms of teaching. What did you learn from gaming, my wee apelings, and how did it help you? Eliza Gauger

Study: Games Can Aid Learning at School [Gamedaily BIZ]

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