The Future Starts Here
Impressive, but I wonder whether tablets are particularly suited for collaborative game-based learning (which playing games in the classroom was all about in the first place).
From the Games and Learning Publishing Council’s “National Survey of Digital Game Use Among Teachers” [page no longer available]:
Digital games are becoming a more regular part of the classroom, according to the nearly 700 teachers who responded to the survey.
Of those teachers who use games in the classroom (513 respondents), the majority of respondents (55%) use games in the classroom at least once a week and another quarter have kids play games at least once a month.
The GLPC survey found that a majority of teachers still use desktop computers to play games (72%) and a sizable group (41%) is using interactive whiteboards. But still, tablets have quickly grown to equal the whiteboard usage.
That’s a lot, actually, but I think it’s reasonable to expect a slight selection bias here, i. e., that teachers who use digital games in their classrooms are a bit more likely to respond to this survey than those who don’t.
Add to that another survey, quoted on GLPC’s website:
This growth of mobile technology was also highlighted in a new survey from the technology and education firm Amplify. That survey found that of those not using tablets 67 percent plan to invest in them in the next 1–2 years.
Again, quite a lot. Yet, “Interactive” and “mobile” don’t necessarily translate into “collaborative,” and I wonder whether tablets are particulary suited for collaborative game-based learning (which playing games in the classroom was all about in the first place).
Also, I wonder how those numbers would compare to a similar survey in Germany—oh wait, I don’t [page no longer available, but it was about a school that got test tablets for free from a company but first had to collect money from parents so they could afford a router].
If you have something valuable to add or some interesting point to discuss, I’ll be looking forward to meeting you at Mastodon!