Game School Looks to Open In NYC

Credit Eliza Strickland with a nice article in Wired on a proposed new public school in New York City that offers to focus on gaming principles in learning. It’s name, appropriately, is the Game School. The organizers don’t want folks to get the idea the school will focus entirely on video games, however. “Rather, …  planners are looking at how games naturally engage players and teach them new skills, and hope to apply those principles to create kids who not only ace their SATs, but are also well suited for the 21st century.”

Curriculum planning takes place this year, and if all goes well with New York’s Dept. of Ed., the school will open doors in ’09. If successfully rolled out, the school will follow in the footsteps of thousands of other thematically based schools around the country that focus on seafaring, general science, medical care, etc.

The Gamelab Institute of Play is behind the effort, partnering with New Visions for Public Schools, which has already successfully shepherded nearly a hundred innovative schools through the famous New York educational bureaucratic red tape. Directors of both organizations, Katie Salen and Robert Hughes, respectively, both had good quotes in the article.

My take: play has a long history of positive educational benefits. In many ways, the salacious aspects surrounding violent video games have overshadowed the powerful educational benefits surrounding instructional video games, and games in general. Perhaps removing the video from the gaming elements, at least part of the time, and designing a good curriculum around play in learning, will lead to demonstrably positive learning achievements.