In an age where children spend nearly 55 hour a week watching television, texting or playing video games, it seems only natural they'd want to continue to interact with media in the classroom. But how do teachers feel about this? Are cell phones a cause of disruption in class, or a useful mechanism through which to provide additional educational content? Nintendo is making a move, arguing that their hand-held console, the Nintendo DS, can be easily and effectively used as an educational resource in the classroom. In fact, Nintendo's General Manager says that getting the Nintendo DS into schools in Japan "is maybe the area where I am devoting myself [the] most." So what does the future hold? Could this be a chance to explore a whole new side of self-directed learning? Or will teachers flip at the thought of a hand-held platform in the clutch of every 4th grader in the world?
Read the article here: Nintendo to Integrate the DS into Classroom Education
We'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cell phones are certainly a disruption. Recently in my daughter's school they tried an experiment. They let all the kids turn on their phones in one classroom and receive texts. In the course of 15 minutes class was disrupted close to 50 times with incoming text messages -- imagine that over the course of an entire class -- our kids' attention is constantly shifting and they are not learning how to focus on a single topic for a prolonged period of time. Will they ever learn to think deeply or even to ponder the mysteries of the universe if they are so busy navel watching and tweeting about it to the person sitting beside them?
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