Fox Valley Career Center game programming technology teacher Anna Schwein had her students focus on â??entertainmentâ? video games at the beginning of the fall semester in order for them to keep an interest in the topic.
However, there is more to the video game market than shoot ’em ups and sports games, and there is more to her class. A growing aspect of the industry falls under the â??edutainmentâ? genre, or games designed to help children learn while entertaining at the same time. Schwein plans to focus about one-third of the semester on this growing aspect of the industry, she said.
David Williamson Shaffer, assistant professor of learning science at the University of Wisconsin Madison, has devoted a significant amount of time to studying it, having written a book called â??How video games help children learn.â?