Now children, time for video games
Portable gaming console to be tried for brain training in school
Instead of telling students to put away their electronic gadgets, one lucky class of schoolchildren will soon be able to use the popular Nintendo DS portable console in their lessons.
A class of 30 will take on challenging brain-training games created by the multinational game console developer Nintendo as part of a government pilot project.
The project was hatched by Manwel Zammit, from the Education Directorate e-learning centre.
The Nintendo DS can be used to play video games but it also features exercises ranging from reading tests to problem-solving and memory puzzles which are believed to stimulate the brain.
A call for quotations was issued for 40 of the box-like consoles - 30 will be used by the schoolchildren while the remaining 10 will be kept at the centre for further testing.
The pilot project is expected to take off this scholastic year although the lucky class or the subject it will be used for have still to be chosen.
The idea came to Mr Zammit after he read about similar pilot studies carried out in the Scotland, where schoolchildren's performance in maths improved after they used brain training games.
A study late last year by Learning and Teaching Scotland, the main organisation responsible for curriculum development, found that a 20-minute brain-training exercises in the morning improved students' overall performance in maths by about 10 per cent.
Some 600 pupils from 32 schools were given similar maths tests before and after the Nintendo DS session. After using the game console, many improved their score and even managed to shave the time it took them to finish the test from 17 to 13 minutes. Following the study, the Scottish government implemented a pilot study to include the game console in 16 schools.
Mr Zammit is involved in another project which is listed among eight other EU projects as examples of good practice in eLearning used to promote the basic skills. Students learn ICT skills through an interactive programme called Rescue La Vallette, An Adventure in Time.
Aimed at 10- to 13-year-olds, the students will become secret agents who have to rescue Jean Parisot de la Vallette using Microsoft Office software Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as the internet and e-mail.