Nintendo DS Helps Teach English in Japan

The DS continues to garner media attention for its role in Japanese public schools. Here’s a brief article by Gary Schmidt detailing its use at the Junior High level for teaching English.

Motoko Okubo, a junior high school teacher, has used the handheld DS and textbook software since May in weekly sessions focusing on vocabulary, penmanship and audio comprehension for teaching english.

“They’ve been using it at home playing games, so at first they were surprised they can use it at school,” Okubo said.

Vice principal Junko Tatsumi says results so far have been encouraging in Japan’s long struggle with English language education … Japan has around 15,000 middle and high schools and in 2000 launched reforms to create a more “relaxed” environment aimed at fostering creativity and reducing rote learning.

The educational outlook for the Nintendo DS continues to look promising.

References:
Schmidt, G. (2008, June 30). The Nintendo DS is becoming more popular than just a portable videogame device. [Online]. Retrieved July 7, 2008 from http://www.halflifesource.com/story/japan_uses_nintendo_ds_in_schools/
article2533.htm

Report: Brain Fitness Software Shows Strong Potential for Schools

The folks over at SharpBrains have released a new report: The State of the Brain Fitness Market, 2008. Highlights include the following:

1) 2007 was a seminal year for the US Brain Fitness software market, which reached $225 million in revenues – up from an estimated $100 million in 2005.

2) Over 20 companies are offering tools to assess and train cognitive skills to four customer segments: consumers; healthcare and insurance providers; K12 school systems; and Fortune 1000 companies, the military, and sports teams.

3) The Nintendo Brain Age phenomenon has driven much of the growth. The consumer segment grew from a few million in 2005 to an estimated $80 million in 2007.

4) There is major confusion in the market, so education will be key. Users and buyers need help to navigate the maze of products and claims.

5) Over 400 residential facilities for older adults have launched computerized “brain fitness centers.” Sales to the healthcare and insurance provider segment grew from $35 million in 2005 to an estimated $65 million in 2007.

6) More than five programs have shown results in randomized controlled trials. Cognitive functions that can be trained include: visual and auditory processing, working memory, attention, and decision-making.

7) A product has obtained 510(k) FDA clearance for rehabilitation of stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury patients. Another product is being used by a growing network of ADHD specialists.

8 Large-scale, fully-automated cognitive assessments are being used in a growing number of clinical trials. This opens the way for the development of inexpensive consumer-facing, baseline cognitive assessments.

9) The potential for K12 Education remains largely untapped due to limited research linking cognitive training to academic performance.

10) Companies, sports teams and the military are finding opportunities to improve productivity. The aging workforce will make this a must.

Total cost for the report is $495, with a 10% discount to blog readers until Mar. 20.

I’m particularly intrigued with the report’s findings on Brain Age, and the potential for brain fitness software in the form of educational videogames for K-12 schools.

STEM Possibilities Through Programming the Nintendo DS

Josh Fishburn, a grad student over at U. Denver, graduate RA at the NSF, and adjunct at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, notes on his blog a YouTube video of a French team controlling a robot through a homebrewed software mod for the Nintendo DS.

I agree with Josh that the possibilities of programming in a “closed” system are intriguing. It reminds me of listening to Elliot Soloway over at GoKnow, in a lecture he gave at UNT, regarding the travails GoKnow had when setting out to create a truly educational game for the Nintendo GameBoy. At the time, Nintendo was not at all interested in educational games, perhaps fearing a negative backlash toward the GAMEboy brand if too many titles promoted educational objectives. My how times have changed, with the BrainAge series and other educational titles for the DS out there. Of course, Nintendo’s main handheld product is not referred to as a GAMEboy anymore, either; it’s now simply known as the DS.  

There have always been ways of programming your own game cartridges, though such efforts have largely been the purview of uber-geek programmers willing to poke around in grey market areas. Perhaps, as Josh’s video shows, closed system programming may become more prevalent. Certainly Microsoft has seen the light with their XNA programming initiative for the Xbox.

If Nintendo or another company offered a simple way to program or modify game cartridges, millions of young boys and girls the world over might well take a stronger interest in computer programming. I suspect math and engineering initiatives would get a major boost from such an initiative.

My Word Coach Expands Vocabulary for DS Users

Word of another educational app for the Nintendo DS: My Word Coach. According to an article by Justin McElroy on Herald-Dispatch.com, the game is an excellent vocab builder. No word on how effective it is as an ESL supplement, but surely it couldn’t hurt.

Tempest in a Wii-cup: Britain’s Abysmal Reading Scores Blamed on Videogames

Expanding a bit on one of Elgan’s media bits, England has indeed dropped from third in the world in primary reading to 15th over the last half decade in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which comes out every year. The Sun lists the rankings:

1 – Russia

2 – Hong Kong

3 – Singapore

4 – Luxembourg

5 – Italy

6 – Hungary

7 – Sweden

8 – Germany

9 – Netherlands

10 – Belgium

11 – Bulgaria

12 – Denmark

13 – Latvia

14 – USA

15 – England

16 – Austria

17 – Lithuania

18 – Chinese Taipei

19 – New Zealand

20 – Slovak Republic

Said Sun Editor David Wooding: “We finished behind former Iron Curtain states such as Russia, Latvia and Bulgaria …”

Britain also finished behind the United States, by one point (no gloating, y’all). Here in the states such rankings are met with a collective yawn. That is, if folks even hear about it. If not for the web, most of us Yanks wouldn’t read as much of the British press. But in Britain, the news was met with horror by politicians and punditry. School Secretary Ed Balls announced a £5 million program to give books to nurseries and libraries, along with government-sponsored encouragement toward parental involvement in reading time.

It was Balls’ and other politicians’ statements concerning videogames as culprits that caused the most chuckles. But plenty of blame and embarrassment have been spread around. A Cambridge study showed little sign of improvement in the nation’s schools despite millions in extra spending, lending doubt that the £5 million on book distribution would do much good. The Torries fussed at Labour for blaming parents. The National Union of Teachers said there is too much teaching to the test, and not enough emphasis on reading for pleasure.

So there it is. If videogames indeed are the culprit in falling scores for British tots (despite copious reading often so necessary in advanced games), perhaps the government should spend that £5 million in purchasing Wii, Playstation, and Xbox consoles. Then they could send them to other countries where gaming is not as prevalent, in hopes of causing their scores to decline next year. So, even the playing field British pols. Instead of buying more books for British kids, buy more videogames for kids in countries ahead of yours. That should work.

References:
Wooding, D. (2007, November 29). Video games ruining reading. The Sun. [Online.] Retrieved Dec. 1 from: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article521951.ece

Update:
Kotaku notes a nice piece in The Guardian, “Is Our Children Reading,” by Steven Poole, who makes the case that many advanced games like The Legend of Zelda, Phantom Hourglass, require the equivalent of reading a paperback novel.

News headlines don’t tell you, for example, about the wonderfully batty series of games for the Nintendo DS starring Phoenix Wright. These games, in which you play the part of a defence lawyer in a series of increasingly surreal criminal trials, take place almost entirely through conversations that you have to remember and then sift for contradictions, before triumphantly shouting “objection!” in a crowded courtroom. At a rough estimate, one Phoenix Wright game contains at least as much text as your average children’s novel.

Meanwhile, another game for the DS, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, not only has innumerable scripted conversations and written signs to read, but makes you write as well – scribbling notes on your maps (via a touchscreen and stylus) so you can solve the puzzles and navigate through increasingly tortuous temples. A child playing this game is probably more passionate about reading its prose for clues and taking detailed notes, than he is about doing his homework. But that’s not the game’s fault.

Prick Skin to Advance a Level

If you missed the last episode of South Park, you missed yet another whimsical take on the videogame industry by creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, this time attacking Guitar Hero. Another riff on videogames and doped up rock stars centered on a game called “Heroin Hero,” where the player sticks a needle in his arm while trying to catch an onscreen dragon. “No one ever catches the dragon.” There was a rather overt reference to the comparisons between videogames and heroin.

In real life, there is a new game that actually does have kids poking themselves with needles. Not for drug hits, but for glucose readings. It’s something that diabetics don’t particularly care for, and something child diabetics sometimes have a tendency to avoid to an unhealthy extent.

Word from Australia is, the $299 Gameboy cartridge combines glucose checking with on-screen action.

Kids who test regularly for healthy levels of blood glucose are awarded extra points to unlock new characters and secret game levels.

Characters in the five specially-designed games include a galaxy-hopping maverick who fights his way through a planet of aliens to rescue the admiral’s daughter, and a regular boy called Hunter who takes on Carnie Cal and his evil clowns.

“It’s a good idea, just brilliant, particularly for boys who are not so good at doing their blood glucose testing,” said Dr Neville Howard, president of Diabetes Australia-NSW.

Necessity, apparently, was the mother of invention for the device, which was the brainstorm of an entrepreneur from Minnesota. It offers positive feedback in the game for regular glucose checking.

The device was invented by an American businessman Paul Wessel, funded by an Australian investment bank and jointly marketed by Diabetes Australia-NSW.

“I stumbled across the idea really,” said Mr Wessel … “My son Luke is diabetic and he kept deliberately losing his blood glucose meter because he hated testing, so this was a solution.”

The Aussies seem to like it. The article concludes with a quote from Paul Zimmet, director of the International Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, praising the device.

The game has been in development for a couple years now. A quick scan on the web turned up discussion on the Games for Health site, and in US News & World Report. Apparently, the device combines a glucose meter with a Nintendo Gameboy cartridge, and incorporates the readings from the meter into the game. By all accounts from Australia, Mr. Wessel’s efforts are successfully coming to fruition.

References:
Streisand, B. (2006, August 14). “Not just child’s play.” US News & World Report, pp. 48-50.

Video game turns skin pricks into fun. (2007, November 14). Herald Sun. [Online]. Available: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/
0,21985,22756352-29277,00.html

Tim Holt’s Byte Speed Podcast

Tim Holt, the Director of Instructional Technology for El Paso ISD, interviewed me yesterday after my presentation on instructional gaming at Fall TecSIG. The Technology Coordinators Special Interest Group is the biggest SIG in the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA). Tec-Sig members meet twice a year in Austin, and again in February during the annual TCEA Conference and Exhibition, which is the largest state-based conference of its kind.

Tim and I talked about educational videogames and their various impacts on the classroom. The podcast lasts 15 minutes. Tim’s blog is quite extensive, and he has podcasts from interviews with several folks in the field at both the corporate and academic levels.

So, give Tim’s site a visit, and if you’ve got 15 minutes or so to spare, have a listen on a podcast dealing with instructional gaming and education.  

Handheld Learning Conference, 2007

With all the talk recently surrounding the educational uses of handheld gaming platforms such as the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP, it makes sense that practitioners have banded together to form a conference on the topic. Andy Pulman blogs about the Handheld Learning Conference and Exhibition, 2007, that is taking place next week in London. A press release that Andy references gives more details.

Here’s a couple of key paragraphs in that press release from the Nintendo folks:

David Yarnton, General Manager, Nintendo UK says:
“The Handheld Learning Conference and Exhibition brings together so many thought-leaders it is natural that Nintendo gets involved with this important educational conference. As the biggest supplier of handheld entertainment, Nintendo is already driving learning across all age groups with its products, in particular the Touch Generations series, including Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old is Your Brain? and Big Brain Academy. So we’re delighted to play our part, furthering the developing role of handheld devices in learning.”

Graham Brown-Martin, Managing Director, Handheld Learning, says:
“The majority of gaming devices – and particularly those by Nintendo – all feature local and wide area networking capabilities, which are exploited by its software titles to enable positive social interaction and networks. Whilst the world has been focussing on the $100 laptop Nintendo had already developed one in the form of the Nintendo DS.”

Ouch. I think the OLPC people might be asking: Where is the keyboard for the DS? Anyways, that’s an argument for another day. Additional details on the conference are available at the conference’s official website.

On a side note, despite our noting the increased discussion surrounding the educational uses of the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP in Japan, Gaming Today informs us that both products have been banned from use on Japanese airlines. Fortunately, other airlines have not followed suit. My oldest will be glad to hear this, flying back from New England later this week, loaded down with several books and both mini consoles to fight the boredom and wait out potential delays.

Aussie Media Notes Educational Uses of DS & PSP in Japan

I’ve discussed previously the educational uses of the Nintendo DS, most recently concerning the trend in Japan. Now, The Daily Telegraph (Australia) has an interesting article regarding the use of the DS and the PSP in Japanese schools. Here are some benefits being realized:

* At just one-fifteenth of the cost of a personal computer — around Y17,000 ($A171.38) each — the DS is an economical teaching tool … results in an initial trial showed the English vocabulary of junior high school students using the DS had soared by 40 per cent.
* Saito Miyauchi, 12, approaches teacher Raita Hirai with a bashful smile as he holds up his DS screen. “That’s great!” the teacher tells him after Saito has topped the class by doing 45 multiplications in 15 minutes.
* “The badminton club keeps me busy. But with DS, I can study everywhere, and quickly.”
* “The benefit is that students can look at, hear and write an English word at the same time. With conventional flash cards, you would have two of them at the best,” …“With the game console, you can feel the fast speed and tempo. I think it matches today’s children,” [a school official] said, adding the board had received no complaints from parents.

Lest all the praise be reserved for the DS, the PSP garners its own admirers in the article. A pilot project in Osaka is soon to expand from 38 fourth graders to 800 or more students:

Teacher Toyokazu Takeuchi did not need to print out or check tests. Instead, his own console received real-time data showing which students were making mistakes and what mistakes they were making.
“This is e-learning made in Japan — traditional efforts in reading, writing and calculating coupled with the power of information technology and game machines,” he said.

Finally, the article concludes with the possibility that, since portable gaming devices are so inexpensive, they may possibly serve as an introduction to educational computing in developing countries. In the meantime, the Japanese seem to be enjoying the educational benefit of the DS and the PSP just fine.

References:
Videogames pushed in class. (2007, September 21). The Daily Telegraph. [Online]. Available: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/
0,22049,22456665-5006007,00.html

Elderly Turn to Videogames to Stay Mentally Fit

The Washington Post had a nice article recently about octogenarians using video games in order to keep their minds fit. A “brain health movement” is sweeping retirement communities nationwide, according to the article. Leslie Walker wrote that Nintendo’s Brain Age and other mentally strenuous video games have joined Bingo, Sudoku, and crossword puzzles as mechanisms to promote brain fitness in the aging and elderly.

Other video games offered by retirement communities to their citizens include one called Brain Fitness, and the virtual bowling game on the Nintendo Wii.

Brain fitness in general is booming, thanks in part to America’s aging population:

In fact, baby boomers may be the biggest catalyst of the brain-fitness boom. They started turning 60, and the nation’s over-65 population will double between 2000 and 2030 — from 35 million to 72 million people. That forecast has triggered an entrepreneurial rush to supply them with anti-aging products.

Next, Walker plugs a couple of related blogs, including SharpBrains.com, with whom I’ve recently traded links:

A growing body of research suggests that mental activity in middle age and earlier can help later in life. As a result, Web sites such as HappyNeuron.com are springing up to offer online games to people of all ages, while blogs like SharpBrains.com provide commentary on the fledgling industry.

Finally, Andrew Carle over at George Mason gets a nice quote:

“No technology trend in fitness has gotten more media attention than cognition training,” said Andrew Carle, a George Mason University professor who studies brain-training products. “What’s driving it is the jump we are seeing in Alzheimer’s, which is an age-related disease.”

References:
Walker, L. (2007, September 12). Keep your brain power up. The Washington Post, pp. HE09. [Online]. Retrieved September 22, 2007 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2007/09/10/AR2007091001879.html