Nintendo DS - A Teaching Tool

Redux::A Year Ago Today - Nintendo DS As A Teaching Tool…

Redux! About this time last year, we touched base on how Japan has embraced its personal technology - Nintendo DS - to help in the education of its kids.  Little did we know, that in only a years time, the US would too embrace its technology to teach. Apple iPod Anyone? Now we use our tech to listen to music. And to watch movies. Play games. The list goes on and on… Oh yeah. We learn on it. too. Anyway, here’s the posting from last year: ——————————— In today’s Yahoo! Tech article, Japan, one of the World’s largest economic countries’ is using an innovative teaching tool to stimulate the minds of their youth. That new teaching device: the Nintendo DS. Not only is it helping Japanese youth learn, it “encourages students to study by themselves.” It seemed inevitable that this transition would take place. Where else in the world will you find everyone so ‘interconnected’ with Technology? It only seems logical to use the very tool that the youth use for enjoyment, to teach them as well.

Photos Courtesy of Yahoo!
Now here’s an idea: What little gizmo do we have here in the US, that has the same popularity as the Nintendo DS in Japan, that we could we use to follow Japan’s teaching model? No…its not a yo-yo. Nice try, though. Its one of the MOST innovative devices that has gained worldwide fanfare. Yes, folks! I’m talking about Apple’s little “prospective” teaching device: the iPod , iPod nano, iPhone, and NOW the iTouch…whatever you want to call it. But if Apple decides to diversify their product, and incorporate this idea of using little hand-held devices to teach, then lets do it. But you are probably thinking, “But we already do use the iPod to teach in schools, dont we?” The answer is a resounding NO. There are only a few schools that use the iPod for education. Moreover, those are the private universities (e.g. Duke, Chapin, etc…) where having an iPod would be more of a perk than a useful teaching device.

Now, California (CA) should be one of the first places to test-drive this idea. Put it in the elementary schools, junior-high, high schools, and bring them up to the college and post graduate school levels. Why CA? For one, CA is the Mecca of Technology. First computer. CA. Ever hear of Silicon Valley? Yup, that’s in CA. The iPod? Duh! In CA. And Starbucks? Just kidding. That was actually started in Seattle. Point is: CA is a great testing ground for such innovative technologies (i.e. demographic, population, etc…) why not start it there!?!? And not to mention the negotiations and profits to be made!!! *sigh. Who knows, it may make the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) a thing of the past. Come on now, if having to take an Exit Exam to graduate from HIGH SCHOOL isn’t reason enough to try out Information Technology teaching methods, then I don’t know what is!!! At any rate, the US should take a clue from Japan. They seem to be in sync with the times. Isn’t time that we follow pace? Thoughts? Let me know…

Don’t let this happen to our youth…