Scaling Up a Video Game-Learning Link

Isn't it time we leveled up?

At an event at the White House in September, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the establishment of the Digital Promise , a nonprofit initiative created to promote digital technologies with the potential to transform teaching and learning. Experts on digital media and learning cheered this latest signal that robust experimentation with technology based on rigorous research and development would take a more prominent place in the national education reform debate.

In tandem with the Digital Promise rollout, our organizations—the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and E-Line Media—announced the second year of the National STEM Video Game Challenge . This video-game-design competition is intended to motivate interest in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, learning among America's young people by tapping into students' natural passion for playing and making video games.

Why games? Are video games really a key element of an untapped "digital promise"? We believe the answer is yes. But we are also acutely aware that realizing this promise will take a concentrated effort by dedicated scientists, game designers, teachers, supervisors, educational publishers,...

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