SINGAPORE: So, you think your child is spending too much time on computer games at home. What if he tells you he'll be playing them at school too - with his teacher's permission?
Next month, at least two schools here are expected to pilot a unique initiative to introduce students, teachers and principals to the world of online gaming as part of the curriculum.
None of the schools have been identified yet as plans are still being fine-tuned and awaiting the authorities' endorsement.
Then again, perhaps it was only a matter of time before the drive to harness IT to the Singapore school experience turned to the powerful influence of role-playing games (RPG) among the young.
The initiative represents a "shift" in direction for the education system, said Assistant Professor Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim, who sits on the Government Parliamentary Committee for Education.
"I see gaming as a new and broadened platform for learning, and by making it interesting to students, it will help motivate them to learn new skills," Prof Muhammad Faishal, who was pleased to learn that teachers would be around to guide the youngsters, told TODAY.
Is that cool or what? I wouldn't mind playing Granado Espada as part of the school programme if I'm still a teenage gamer. What I'm really curious about is what kind of skills they hope the students can pick up or how it can enhance their learning experience.
Granado Espada - a suitable game for this experiment?
First, the game has an awkward number of mis-spellings when it was ported over to English from Korea, not sure if the English teachers are gonna sit up and complain.
Second off I'm not sure why Granado Espada was chosen over other games such as The Sims, Second Life, Command and Conquer or something. Yeah sure the game has great visuals and music, but I'm not sure it has much depth. From my point of view, the game involves a lot of grinding. If you are going to get students deeply involved in it, they will be spending vast amounts of time leveling up or completing quests. I have my doubts about the life-skills and decision-making insight they will reap from the game, despite what the report says:
Following focus group discussions with principals, teachers, students, academics and counsellors, the RPG Granado Espada was "carefully selected" to have its colourful fantasy characters introduced into the school curriculum.
Mr Thomas Chong, director of education initiatives at Infocomm Asia Holdings (IAH), which is spearheading the initiative, said it was "not your typical slash-and-kill" game, but one that can help players learn life-skills such as decision-making and problem-solving.
"This is not an educational game dressed up as an MMOG (massively-multi-player online game). Rather, we want to ask students whether, say, a war can be won without fighting, but instead by signing a treaty? We want them to see the merits of discussion, strategising, and coming up with alternative ideas," he said.
Singapore is believed to be the first country in the world planning to use Grenado Espada as a learning tool. And lest parents are worried it might open the school doors to other addictive RPGs, the online games operator gave the assurance that any future games introduced would undergo the same strict selection process.
Granado Espada in National Education - GENE
This is pretty interesting to me. Remember the videos Singapore in Clay Art and Singapore in Sand Art? Those were the videos shown by the PM during the last National Day Rally speech when he talked about making National Education less boring. Now, there is contest for producing a machinima (machine animation) for National Education using Granado Espada. The themes are "Singapore is our homeland; this is where we belong", "We must preserve racial and religious harmony", and such. I'm guessing we may get to see the winning entries during the National Day Rally this year. A sample is included here.
For the potential of using Granado Espada machinima in story-telling, take a look at the rather famous Lonely Hearts Club clip.
Part 1
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Part 2
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