Arizona State University has partnered with a nonprofit to educate students through video gaming.
Through the partnership with Games for Change, students will earn microcredentials, or digital badges for participating in “hackathons” or picking up skills from playing games.
Mark Ollila is the founding director of ASU’s Endless Games and Learning Lab.
“There’ll be continually excited students that are sharing their micro credentials around what they’ve learned in games based learning. And it’s really having that acknowledgement that there’s a lot of criticism around games, but games are so powerful in terms of the learning that can come from it,” he said.
He cited SimCity as an example of how people can learn about urban planning and resource management.
Ollila says the gaming and learning lab focuses on using games not just as a learning tool but as an economic opportunity.
He says games serve as an important resource.
“So the big emphasis I really want to have is that games are a powerful tool for achieving scale for examining and understanding learning that's been taking place while you're making games and playing games,” he said.
-
A study is providing new insight on the traumas and experiences of incarcerated women at the Estrella Jail. The report came from a partnership between ASU and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. -
A new study that started at Northern Arizona University found the amount of salt in an environment significantly limits population growth for Earth’s largest herbivores. -
This weekend, SpaceX will take a telescope into orbit that will study the most common types of stars in the galaxy. -
Researchers at the University of Arizona have received a nearly $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the impact of phthalates on women’s fertility. -
Arizona State University’s new medical school got its accreditation this fall; the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering plans to welcome its first class for the fall semester next year.
