Educational Gaming is on the Brink of Revolution
Educational games have come a long way since the modest days of Oregon Trail on the Apple II. No longer are games simply image and text adventures that force-feed information to students (I do admit I loved Oregon Trail as a child.) Games are becoming fully-interactive experiences that are radically changing the stereotypes that have been put in place. The Nintendo Wii was the first console to bring with it a new way to interact with objects on the screen. Motion controllers transferred movements into on-screen actions. Nintendo created products such as the Wii Fit and Big Brain Academy to help stretch the boundaries of what was previously possible with interactive technology. What Nintendo has done is great, but it’s just an evolution of previous generations of gaming consoles, not a revolution. Fortunately, Microsoft is stepping up to the plate with Project Natal.
Project Natal was recently unveiled at the E3 Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. I was blown away by the potential that this technology presents. No longer are controllers even a factor; your body is what controls the experience. Natal will usher in an entirely new level of educational interactivity. Just imagine walking through ancient structures, long destroyed by time, without ever leaving a classroom. Imagine your students creating collaborative works of art without ever touching a brush. Project Natal also offers a whole new way for students to be physically active without the need of annoying peripherals.
Project Natal is the revolution that educational technology has needed for a long time. It will allow students to experience and enjoy history, art, music, and countless other subjects in a completely new manner. Students will also be able to collaborate with other students world-wide on new and exciting projects that will push the limits of their imagination. The possibilities are truly endless with such a device. Project Natal is the future of interactive technology; never have I been so excited when thinking about the opportunities. Microsoft is pushing the device as purely for entertainment purposes, but I urge you to imagine the possibilities. Hopefully this video will excite you as much as it has excited me.
6 Comments
Dr. Phyllis C. Brown
Wednesday, 10th June 2009 at 10:53 am
The Natal Project is truly amazing!!! I am the Program Director for Elementary Education at Keiser University. I am fasinated and want to know how can I demo it for potential integration into my program as a teaching tool. I would like to speak with someone about how I can integrate it into my Elementary Education Program at Keiser University in Sarasota, Fl?
Micki rhodes
Wednesday, 10th June 2009 at 3:17 pm
I would like to keep connected with Dr. Brown (Keiser) about how she uses this as a teaching tool so I can incorporate ideas into my elementary curriculum. I think kids would learn so much. We’d need lots of stations. How much do these systems cost?
Joe Corbett
Wednesday, 10th June 2009 at 7:48 pm
@ Dr. Brown Project Natal will not be commercially available until Spring 2010. I think it would be interesting if we started the dialogue with Microsoft to let them know the Educational Technology community is interested is using this in the classroom.
@Micki an Xbox costs aprox $250 for the base system, project natal as I mentioned above is not for sale yet so we don’t have a price on that.
Alfred Thompson
Wednesday, 10th June 2009 at 8:33 pm
Natal is still being developed but we have seen a lot of interest from educators already. I don’t know if there are specific plans yet though. For now the product page lives in the Xbox world (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/projectnatal/) though.
But the tie between games and education is a close on. See also the Kodu project (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/) which is at the interaction of game play and learning programming, planning and sequential thinking.
Two other technologies that might also be of interest as they are a bit “different” ways to interact with computers are Microsoft Surface (http://www.microsoft.com/surface/) and the upcoming multi-touch feature in Windows 7. (http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2008/05/27/microsoft-demonstrates-multi-touch.aspx)
Ed tech 205
Thursday, 11th June 2009 at 7:58 am
This sounds like some great new technology for schools to use. I am currently in an educational technology course at my university and we are discussing virtual reality and if that has a place in schools. How would this compare to VR? It seems to me like its pretty close expect that you don’t need any controllers since your body is what controls the experience. The other reason I like this is because like you said, what better way to learn about history or another culture than by walking through it and interacting with it. I truly believe that this is the future of using technology in the classroom. It will make students excited to learn when they their using the latest technology since more and more of them have access to technology these days. If schools and teachers want to keep up with the needs of students then I think using Natal would be the best thing for them. Also with the growing concern of obese students, if the game had something like WiiFit incorporated in it, it would be a new way to get them out of their seat and exercise and they probably wouldn’t even realize they were. Again it’s a new way to make kids excited about being in school and doing something different. We don’t know the cost yet so that is one concern for schools and it would depend on how many educational experiences or games they come out with compared to just “video games”. But I agree that we should push for this project to be marketed towards schools. What would students rather do, sit and listen to a lecture, play a 2-D game, go online, or get out of there seat and experience places and interactions they never thought they could? I think the answer is pretty clear.
Zachary Saale
Thursday, 11th June 2009 at 1:17 pm
@Ed tech 205: Natal is quite different from VR. It lets you interact using your body but it doesn’t necessarily immerse you in the same way. Natal will hopefully be a much cheaper alternative for schools than any future VR technology. Since it uses a regular consumer device it will also be much more accessible for students and teachers alike.
My experiences with VR technology has always been clunky and it always required the use of numerous peripherals. Natal’s only controller is your body and that what makes it so unique.
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