A Smart New Wave In Educational Video & Computer Games

To give any child the best running start on the educational revolution of the 21st century, you simply cannot overlook the power of video and computer games. Many educators and researchers who not long ago bemoaned the rapt attention that children were giving to these games are now realizing that they may be the keys to ever more powerful levels of interactivity and learning. End Quote

Chicago, IL (1888PressRelease) August 30, 2007 - While your kids are trooping back to school, you may want to look over their class lists, and then consider buying them a video game or two. Buy them a video game? You bet. There is a whole host of new educational games available that can give your child an extra boost in their class work, and a new website, SuperSmartGames.com, has already profiled more than 150 of them.

Ben Feller of the Associated Press wrote about video games that "Scientists call it the next great discovery, a way to captivate students so much they will spend hours learning on their own. It's the new vision of video games." He goes on to say that "The Federation of American Scientists — which typically weighs in on matters of nuclear weaponry and government secrecy declared… that video games can redefine education. Capping a year of study, the group called for federal research into how the addictive pizzazz of video games can be converted into serious learning tools."

For example, if your child will be learning the multiplication tables this year, Timez Attack is a terrific console-style game for the PC where kids chase dangerous monsters, find their way through maze-like tunnels, and learn multiplication at the same time. That sure beats flash cards.

Pre-Algebra and Algebra students can benefit from the DimensionM set of games from Tabula Digita. The games were designed with two goals in mind: students who play will get hooked, and students who play will increase their test scores Tough talk from a gaming company, but it seems that this one can back it up with results.

In ChemRacer 2713, chemistry students can become champion ChemRacer of the universe while learning interesting facts about the elements on the periodic table, and how they relate to the planets, geology, and the health sciences.

There has been a quiet explosion in research and development and the new educational games are a revolutionary way to expand your child’s potential. In fact, The MacArthur Foundation, which gives out the prestigious Genius Awards, has pledged $50 million to study the best ways to harness the educational potential of video games.

Games like 3DLanguage: Spain, which created a virtual Spanish town for learning and practicing Spanish. The developers have combined a very robust game engine with powerful speech recognition technology to make an engaging interactive experience. Some of the development team went so far as to live in Spain to make sure they got it right.

And as many students will be learning about the presidential election process this year, a game like President Forever 2008 + Primaries, using realistic electorate modeling techniques along with an unprecedented number of options and detailed candidate bios, can be a big boost in helping kids understand the concepts.

These games, and many more, can be found on the first-of-it’s-kind website www.SuperSmartGames.com. "Our aim is to catalog and profile all the best games from the booming educational games genre." says Super Smart Games Editor-in-Chief Elle Sanders. "Some are happily familiar and some are surprisingly new and innovative. But mostly these are games you’ll just want to fire up and play." Sanders also points out that the games are cross-categorized by age group and by subject matter, so finding appropriate games is a snap.

And while there are plenty of games on the site that correlate to the standard school subjects, there are also many titles that offer more open-ended learning opportunities. Games like Restaurant Empire, Ice-Cream Tycoon, and My Horse Farm teach kids how to start and manage a business and how to allocate limited resources. Respect Our Earth, Great Journey, and Karma Tycoon playfully teach lessons about social responsibility. There is even a whole section devoted to the exciting new health and fitness games like Dance Dance Revolution, Wii Sports, and Healthy Eating & Exercise. Many parents will also be delighted to learn that quite a few of the games on the site are absolutely free.

To give your child the best running start on the educational revolution of the 21st century, you simply cannot overlook the power of video and computer games. Many educators and researchers who not long ago bemoaned the rapt attention that children were giving to these games are now realizing that they may be the keys to ever more powerful levels of interactivity and learning. Ben Sawyer, co-founder of the Serious Games Initiative, says that "This is not an, 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em' message’. It's, 'Hey, something’s working here.'"

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Visit Super Smart Games / Elle Sanders Website

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