Games Will Change Everything

Games (and other smart adaptive learning media) will be part the core instructional program for most kids in a few years because they are:

• Adaptive: continuous performance assessment identifies and targets a student’s instructional level and provides instant feedback–it’s personalized learning;
• Engaging: good games use creative media to teach key instructional skills (rather than using learning tasks as gateways to more fun)–it’s fun;
• Motivating: good games build persistence through increasingly levels of challenge and incorporate a variety of reward and recognition systems–it’s addictive.

Other learning media that are incorporating game-like elements include simulations and virtual learning environments.  These are currently most common in supplemental learning but will increasingly be incorporated into core curriculum and will populate next gen learning platforms (i.e., learning objects, learner profiles, smart recommendation engines, learning communities, and aligned services).
Development incentives have been weak but promising experiments with freemium platforms with subscriptions for premium content and related analytics will lead to increased investment.  Lagging tax receipts and tight budgets are also increasing interest in technology produced productivity.
Education is a generation behind consumer games and military simulations but the sector is poised to make up a little ground in the next 36 months with a new generation of personalized digital learning tools.