With technology expanding and luring youth away from school, the British are trying to use technology to lure students back to school. One such way is through the upcoming BETT technology fair at Olympia in London starting January 9, 2008.
The goal of this event is to bring together the global teaching and learning community for four days of innovations and inspirations. Some of those inspirations stem from current gadgets children may already own, which is why Sony is getting involved in this technology fair with a few ideas of its own.
Sony, famous for its video-game consoles, came to the event to offer educators a way to reach children who play games and to help make learning fun using the PSP. The handheld was first made available in Europe on September 1, 2005, allowing children to play their favorite games on the go.
Since the recent upgrades and added capabilities such as being able to download videos, the handheld system could be used for educational purposes. Using the latest models, Stimpfig suggests that teachers could create video lessons their students can download and review wherever and whenever they like by simply downloading them to their PSP and watch it later.
“Why not give children something they already know how to use?” says Mark Stimpfig, one of the directors of ConnectED, the UK educational distributors of the Sony PSP. “It’s very video-based, which contrasts greatly with virtual learning environments, which are very static. If there are two and a half million children out there using their PSPs to play games, then there’s no reason why teachers shouldn’t use them for teaching purposes.”
For centuries educators have tried to reach out to children, to teach them the ways of the world through books, globes, maps and lesson plans. Sometimes they even reach out to smack the back of your head when you throw one too many spit wads at the chalkboard or disrupt the classroom with silly nonsense. Even today the young try the patience of those who try to reach out and instill the knowledge of our ancestors as well as the skills we need to survive as adults.
Read [The Independent] Site [BETT Technology Fair]
I would interested to see how this can be implemented with the Digital Cre8or awards.
Video game have more negative effects than positive, educational related effects. PSP is just trying to boost the sales and that just makes me sick… There numerous studies that clearly demonstrate that video-games have dangerous psychological effects and irreversible brain damage.