Students in Scotland Told to “Brain Train” on the DS Before School

After a study showed that playing 20 minutes of More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima in the morning can improve math test scores by 10%, schools in Scotland will soon be telling students to play the game before school. The program will be tested on 16 schools and, if successful, may soon see the DS adopted as a learning aid:

“The initial pilot project that used the Nintendo DS and Dr Kawashima produced fascinating results,” Derek Robertson, a development officer for ‘games-based learning’ at the LTS, said.

“Not only was there a marked and significant improvement in attainment in mental maths but there was also an improvement in concentration levels, behaviour and self regulation in the learning process.”

This new trial will be monitored by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education and researchers at the University of Dundee. LTS has spent £34,000 on 480 Nintendo DS systems for the program. The consoles will be distributed to students at the beginning of class and then collected after the brain training sessions.

I still just don’t get this whole “brain training” craze. Sure, it’s cool when you’re on the go and you want a short distraction that feels somewhat educational, but I don’t get why they need to put this specific game in school. When I was young, we had a device that allowed us to play dozens of educational games in school, which we used all the time. It was called a computer.

Via Times Online