Teacher Bytes

I just got though watching the Nintendo presentation at the E3 Expo and came away with two thoughts. First, Nintendo might have read my previous blog post about the possibilities of the Nintendo DS becoming an educational tool. Company officials talked about the various uses outside of gaming such as looking up airline information at airports, keeping track of baseball scores and ordering food at Safeco Field in Seattle. It was further intimated that Nintendo was doing a variety of tests to see what a DS could do.

The other announcement that intrigued me was Wii Music. This game allows four people to play a choice of 50 instruments to make music easily. The demonstration had Nintendo officials jamming to the theme of Super Mario. Unlike Guitar Hero or Rock Band, Wii Music allows players to have more control over their music by using the Wiimote to play an instrument. The software takes advantage of the balance board to help play drums. Finally, one player can play a song with different instruments then combine the effort to make a music video of a virtual one-man-band.

Wii Music might become a useful tool for music teachers to introduce students to making their own music then gradually move up to real instruments. Who knows, you might see a group of students playing in a Wii Music band on some parent night in the near future.

According to rumors spread by Engadget, PC World, and other sites there may be a new Nintendo DS for teachers to start collecting from students this coming school year. Speculation is an unveiling will take place this week at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles. Some sites have hinted the new DS will be thinner by taking out the slot for Gameboy Advanced Games. Other speculations is that it will have music and video capabilites. All I know is that my family is postponing a trip so my son can see the Nintendo news conference on Tuesday to see what is in store for the next year and I now believe the DS could become a welcome device in schools.

In the past I have touted the Sony PSP as a device that, with some modifications, would make an excellent educational device. Sadly, Sony is still not seeing the potential of the PSP as it has been relegated to the back in favor of Blue Ray and the Play Station 3. Nintendo and its gaming design affiliates have impressed me over the last few months withs its efforts by producing educational related-software. In Japan, Nintendo is aggressively marketing the devices to adults with various brain-stimulating games such as Brain Age and language tutors. This is carrying over to the United States as well. Who knows, the recently released Guitar Hero On Tour might inspire students to play musical instruments.

How could the DS become the educational device I thought the PSP could become? It will need some modifications for this to happen. First, the device would have to be able to play audio and video media, which I think it can already do. The problem would be memory which could be solved by adding a SD card slot. Nintendo already uses SD cards with its Wii gaming system. Second, Nintendo should not eliminate the GBA slot, something I don’t think they are going to do anyway. Guitar Hero On Tour and My Weight Loss Coach use the slot as an I/O device. Why could the same slot not be used for a keyboard? This means Nintendo would have to create word processing software or build in a web browser into the device’s operating system so it could use online apps like Google Docs. The stylus and handwriting recognition does a pretty good job too of creating text. Speaking of the stylus, an e-book reader would be a natural for the DS. Readers could use the stylus to make notes and highlight text. There are probably other modifications that could be put on this wish list so feel free to add them with your comments.

Nintendo has signaled it wants its DS gaming system to do more than just play games with software that is aimed at teaching and games that could be considered edutainment. The DS could become an educational platform of the future if Nintendo added better web browsing, text imput, audio/video media, and book reader capabilities to the device. Plus the DS is cheap and already in the hands of kids all over. Can you imagine hearing teachers telling students “Get out your DS” as they start a school day in the near future?