Research

Learning through gaming

Published 13 April 2012

Fancy learning through playing computer games? School pupils in India and the UK will be ditching their notebooks for computer games consoles in a bid to make learning more fun.

The move is part of a British Council project and the research and evaluation is being led by Dr Tim Rudd from the University of Brighton's School of Education. It comes in the wake of the launch of new low-cost, stripped down computer technology, such as the Beagleboard and the Raspberry Pi, which can be re-used for educational purposes.

The university project will look at how computer games can be used by teachers in schools across India to make learning more engaging as well as increasing the use of IT in classrooms without breaking the education budget.

Thirty schools in India and 15 schools in the UK will participate in the 16-month project. Dr Rudd, who is based at the Education Research Centre where information and communication technology (ICT) use in schools is a key theme, will look specifically at how off-the-shelf commercial games can be used in the classroom and study the kind of teaching required to introduce this type of learning.

Dr Rudd said: "There is a need for a fundamental shift in the emphasis on technology in the classroom in the UK (as well as India). Sometimes in schools, given the structures and the assessment systems, we are limiting the possibilities of how we use ICT. Why do children have to use edutainment – something that has been designed exclusively for educational purposes? Surely if we can get it right, popular games and technologies can be a key resource to aid learning."