The Osaka Board of Education signed off on the measure, according to Japanator, potentially restoring my faith in public education systems. Students will use "education software" to further their school studies; and by "education software," I assume they mean Brain Age and not Cooking Mama.

The DS's appearance in Japanese classrooms is nothing new. Back in 2006, Kyoto Prefecture's Yawata City had students spend the first ten minutes of class, studying vocab on their Nintendo portables. As of 2009, the prefecture was still using the DS for study.

I can't imagine taxpayers are too happy about this, especially if their kids don't go to these schools. Or they don't even have any kids. But then, Nintendo makes up a pretty serious part of Japan's economy; it could pay off.

Maybe every DS taxes buy for a school child will be 100 yen Nintendo puts toward making games that don't suck.

「ＤＳソフト補助金は反射的利益」　橋下知事 [Sankei via Japanator via Destructoid]

The U.S. publisher of Harry Potter books is under attack by a children's advocacy group for marketing toys, lip gloss and video games to children through their in-school book clubs.

Scholastic earned nearly $337 million last year from their book clubs, which the company estimates three-quarters of all U.S. elementary school teachers and 2.2 million children participate in each year.

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood launched a protest Monday accusing Scholastic of exploiting its access to school by marketing non-books to kids. The group says that a third of the items Scholastic sells are either not-books or book packs that include non-books.

"The opportunity to sell directly to children in schools is a privilege, not a right," said CCFC's director, Dr. Susan Linn. "Schools grant Scholastic unique commercial access to children because of its reputation as an educational publisher. But Scholastic is abusing that privilege by flooding classrooms across the country with ads for toys, trinkets, and electronic media with little or no educational value."

"It's bad enough that so many of the books sold in Scholastic book clubs are de-facto promotions for media properties like High School Musical and SpongeBob SquarePants," said Dr. Linn. "But there's no justification for marketing an M&M videogame or lip gloss in elementary schools. Teachers should not be enlisted as sales agents for commercialized merchandise that actually compete with books for children's attention and their families' limited resources."

This isn't the first time that the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood has taken on video game sales or advertising. The group was also behind the push to remove ads for GTA from buses and other forms of transportation, a drive to get the Wii version of Manhunt an adults only rating and once called LEGO Batman oppressive and destructive to children.

As usual, the Campaign folks are being alarmists. Only 14 percent of the items sold by Scholastic are not books and that includes things like pencils, erasers and notebooks. The other 19 percent were books bundled with other items, some meaningful, some not so much. However I do think that Scholastic needs to refocus both their book and non-book selections with an eye toward getting kids to read.

Some of the eighth graders and high school freshmen who signed up for the group couldn't have cared less about writing or reading in school. Yet those students have gone from barely stringing together two sentences to writing lengthy posts in their group's Web site forum, where they discuss detailed strategies for gearing up their virtual characters and figuring out tough quests.

"It has worked ridiculously well," Steinkuehler said. "It shouldn't be working as well as it is."

Video games are also being embraced by some advocates of "unschooling," a type of home schooling that puts kids more in charge of the curricula. Guess what — the kids want to play video games. But they also learn everything from math skills to social skills along the way.

The unschoolers' experiences, along with the early success of Steinkuehler's program, suggest that playing a video game set in a virtual online world can encourage students to learn valuable real-world skills. Steinkuehler's goal is to figure out when and how learning takes place in online games, and how popular games made for entertainment might become educational tools.

The article goes on to talk with 'unschooling' homeschooling parents and spends more time on Steinkuehler's research. It's an interesting, reasonably mainstreamed piece on the educational uses of popular games.

World of Warcraft Video Game Succeeds in School [LiveScience via Pop Cosmopolitanism]

If high school didn't represent some of the most stressful and awkward years of my life, I'd go back in a flash to play this SAT game on my DS! Think of it as Brain Age with a real tangible result. Would you be more likely to prep for the SATs on your DS than through a book or browser?

SAT Prep Game Coming to DS [GamelLife]

Kid Arrested for Church Fire After Posting About it Online [YouTube - WGEM Report]

So wait, these kids get to play Nintendo Wii in school? All I got for finishing my work quickly was first dibs on Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail. Actually, never mind. I didn't have it so bad after all.

Brit's School Mantra [via opposablethumbs]

After the student's arrest, around 40 police officers patrolled the campus. When police searched the student's room, they found no weapons. Court documents have since shown that the student claimed "he was joking and had no intention of following through with the threats."

Misdemeanor charges filed against FSU gamer [via theinquirer]

Earlier, we posted about student-made DS games that have hit Japan. Reader Ryan, the trooper that he is, sent some pics and a hands-on description. He writes:

Thanks to Kotaku I learned about those Japanese student DS games that Nintendo is making available on it's download kiosks. I know that those who can't try these games might be interested, so I decided to throw together a little sampling.

I downloaded the game where you draw pictures corresponding to music in order to communicate with extraterrestrials. ...The premise of the game seems to be that clues to a riddle are given through the lyrics of a song, meanwhile you are given cues to draw certain shapes in specific regions of the screen. For example, in the center of the screen; draw a pocket, on the top of the screen; draw a wrench, and slowly a Beetle drawing emerges. At the end it asks you what the song and drawing is eluding to, and this will answer the riddle. It's rather charming, and I was surprised by the production quality. If I wasn't told ahead of time, I might not have realized this was created by students.

Wow! I wasn't expecting these student games to look like, well, actual games. That you could play. Nintendo can sure scout 'em, huh? Brian Ashcraft

Not exploiting in a bad way, but a good way. Nintendo Co., Ltd. is making games developed by students at its Nintendo Seminar 2006 available for download via the DS Station. Starting late last week and appearing every two weeks after that, the games are totally free. Games include one that has players swing a steel ball to destroy obstacles and help mice captured by cats or another one that has players shout things at inappropriate times. These games, like so many good things, are Japan only. Brian Ashcraft

The Dark Side [Eurogamer]

We must thank these fine people for a live action version of PaRappa the Rapper. Now if they could just explain what the hell is going on. Actually, we can. This is Andreas Wieslander's Bachelor's Thesis, who enlightens:

It's a project about marketing games through live performances, in order to focus on the games feel, rather than its graphics and sfx. This idea has been applied to the game PaRappa the Rapper to PlayStation.

Hit the jump for the original version. Brian Ashcraft

Hate school? Loathe English? Live in Korea? You're in luck! Game companies there don't look at things like foreign language ability or GPAs for prospective game developers. Instead, whether or not the individual can function on little or no sleep or long hours and little pay matter. Says NCsoft's Lee Hwa-soo:

English and grades are not important. We rarely look at the name of the university they graduated from or the grades they earned. English is also not a must in many job positions.

So they check the applicant's pulse? Brian Ashcraft

Get That Nose To That Grindstone [The Korea Times]

First, it was American kids sweating it out on a DDR. Now, it's Japanese junior and senior high schoolers studying English via the Nintendo DS. Starting this September, students in Kyoto Prefecture's Yawata City spend the first ten minutes of class, studying vocab on their portables. Says a Yawata City teacher:

The students are getting accustomed to using the DS and are studying enthusiastically. Progress can be expected.

Thanks to traditionally poor language instruction in the classroom, English is notoriously difficult for many Japanese. The software includes 1900 words for high school students and 1800 words for junior high student. They practice writing the words on the touch screen, and the DS emits the correct pronunciation for new vocab. There's talk of expanding this program elsewhere and plans to introduce Kanji software as well. These classroom applications for the DS are a no brainer, really. Brian Ashcraft

Study Hard Kids! [Yomiuri]

"Our data support the recommendation that parents limit weekday television and video game time to less than one hour and restrict access to adult media by limiting exposure to cable movie channels and R-rated movies and videos," wrote the study's author, Dr. Iman Sharif of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

The number of students who had poor performance rose as weekday television screen time surpassed three hours and time spent playing video games rose past one hour on weekdays, found the study.

Wow. So, more time dedicated to beating hookers to death with a 9-iron might lead to poor school performance? Consider us stunned! Michael McWhertor

Too much time with TV, video games cuts school performance: study

Real life college professor Ed Lamoureaux is Professor Beliveau in Second Life. He is teaching an in-game college class on multi-media. In an interview with SL site NMC Campus Observer, Ed is asked whether or not it is a good idea to invite college students into Second Life, due to questionable areas in the game. His response?

I'm gonna teach a field research class [in SL], and if I taught a field research class in Peoria, Illinois, you know, we've got three strip clubs, or four strip clubs actually, within four miles.

Not that anyone is counting, Ed. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Flicker Gaming]

Pac-Man's creator has left the Namco building to go teach future game developers. The self-taught Toru Iwatani worked at Namco for almost thirty years, but had been more on the administration end of late and less on the creative side.

Recently, he lectured on game planning at Tokyo Polytechnic University and taught at the University of Arts in Osaka as a visiting professor. Iwatani recalls that he experienced youngster's passion for gaming and took Tokyo Polytechnic's offer to become a full-time lecturer. He explains his M.O.:

It will become very hard to train staff in-house, as was done in the past. As a result, the educational institutions must follow through. However, Japan is far behind in the field of game education compared with the US, Europe, Korea, and China.

Aren't you all warm and fuzzy, right now? Mr. Pac-Man is ditching his high paying front office job to teach pimply-faced otaku. And he isn't just doing it for the youth, but for Japan. How sweet. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [GameSpot]

Wired has a great article up, detailing India's rise as a gamer society and the proliferation of cybercafes and gaming tournaments through India's growing middle class. India today is China of 2001: A rumbling cluster of highly compressed gamers ready to explode in a Big Bang across the entirety of the subcontinent.

One thing that the article mentions is currently hampering gaming from really catching on in India is the lack of Indian themed games, "with Hindu gods and Bollywood music." However, they note that we can probably expect the market to be flooded by games with names like Full Thang-Ta Warrior and Mecha-Shiva soon.

Another problem mentioned is the importance given to schools in an intensely competitive academic culture. There's just no time to game with all that book learning. That's why I dropped out of high school... suckers. Florian Eckhardt

Counter-Strike, India Style [Wired]

Summer vacation! And if you lived in China, you'd jet over to the local internet cafe and play some MMO until your eyes bled. Well, you would have if the Chinese government weren't such a big wet blanket. The country's MInistry of Culture is kicking off a campaign to monitor internet cafes from July 1st to September 30th this year. This crackdown will keep kids out of the cafes and on the street, where they can do safe things like play in traffic. Middle school teachers are being hired to serve as internet cafe supervisors. School's out? Yeah, right. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Pacific Epoch] via Joystiq

Deprived of a rich gaming background by overprotective parents? Can't keep up with the witty banter at your local network gaming establishment (do these even exist anymore?)? Keep embarassing yourself in front of friends and relatives when asked to make speeches at Zaxxon-themed bar mitzvahs?

Roffling reader Chris sent in a link to his blog where he is hosting a PDF of a final exam paper from the University of Teesside School of Computing, where one of his hapless friends has enrolled in the History of Games course:

16) Many videogames contain undocumented secrets in the form of mini-games, extra characters, levels etc. What are these secrets commonly known as?

a) Monkey nuts.
b) Christmas gifts.
c) Magic moments.
d) Easter eggs.
e) Trap doors.

I actually like "monkey nuts" a hell of a lot better. Thanks Chris! eliza gauger

Now this is an education... [True Player]

While searching for retro gaming stuff, reader Cliff stumbled across these images of carnival games from a college. Details are scant, but with "Astronomy Club Presents Space Invaders", what else do you need? Hit the jump for the Dunt Hunt catridge booth. Brian Ashcraft

Space Invaders
Duck Hunt Thanks, Cliff!

Brainy dude Henry Jenkins chatted with GameSetWatch. Jenkins is the Director of Comparative Media Studies and Full Professor of Literature at MIT. Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow has described him as "one of us: a geek, a fan, a popcult packrat" and Will Wright pointed out that "Henry Jenkins offers crucial insight into an unexpected and unforeseen future." Jenkins isn't our cheerleader, but a visionary, pointing out not only on what games are, but what they can and could be.

Great, that's fine and dandy. But does he actually play them?

I don't have long periods of time to play games (not and do everything else my job requires) and I am not particularly well coordinated so I don't end up getting to play as many hardcore titles as I might like. I try to make a point of spending some time with most of the more innovative or controversial titles to hit the market. I often get to talk directly with the designers about what they were trying to achieve. And sometimes I end up paying students to walk me through levels of a game so I can get a clear sense of what's going on.

Coolest part-time job at MIT, bar none. Brian Ashcraft

Read the Rest Here [GameSetWatch]