Education in the future will be more like videogames

In today’s LA Times, they ran a story on the launch this week of Wemo Media’s web game theBlu. Wemo defines their goal this way: to “create the ocean on the web - an interactive world where every species and habitat is a unique work of art created by digital artists and developers around the world, as a social online experience.”

TheBlu has two main strengths: (1) it has educational possibilities, and games until now have not had this, and (2) it has a social media aspect that enables the public to create for it and engage in it. This is why they call it a “Web App” but it’s really an “open world” or “free roaming” web game fused with social media, because (in my opinion at least) “game” does not have to imply fighting and social media does not have to imply Facebook behavior.

In the future, public education will use videogames like this to provide immersive virtual worlds in which students can pursue independent research. I don’t mean online education that replaces teachers, which is a terrible idea destined to fail; I mean web-based programs that aid teachers and are interactive for students. Primitive versions are already being experimented with by a few innovative teachers. Don’t just think Science and History; all subjects will benefit.

Right now we are in a dark phase with public education. Our teachers are exhausted and they are leaving the profession just as the web begins to assume enormous importance in our lives and in our schools. Some teachers are adapting; most are not. TheBlu ultimately may fail (they plan a subscription-based model, which I think is a mistake), but I see it as ushering in the next generation of videogames because it involves science and nature, albeit virtually. This is where Second Life failed – who wants to go to a shopping mall? The past decade has been dominated by console and PC fighting games like Halo and Call of Duty (this is not to criticize Nintendo, The Sims, online games and mobile), but the time has come for something new that stimulates the imagination. Education may be the prime beneficiary of this.