Remember Sesame Street—just about the most successful media-based learning offering ever created? (And an extremely entertaining cultural phenom?) The show was created in 1966 by Joan Ganz Cooney and her team. Cooney later created the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, which “focuses on the challenges of educating children in a rapidly changing media landscape. “
In a recent survey co-sponsored by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Gates Foundation, teachers were asked about games in the classroom. Here are some of the conclusions:
- More than half of teachers have students play games at least once a week.
- Teachers use games for a variety of reasons and purposes. Nearly half of teachers said low-performing students benefit the most from games. Games seem to motivate struggling students to stick with a lesson and learn more.
- Teachers have a hard time finding games that align with curriculum standards. Many teachers also cite lack of time and lack of tech resources as barriers.
Barriers to getting more games into the classroom. (Source: gamesandlearning.org)
This study was published on Gamesandlearning.org, a project of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and the Games and Learning Publishing Council. If you’re a parent or teacher interested in games and learning, you might want to check out Gamesandlearning.org. It has lots of information about educational games and learning research.
