A St. Charles, Illinois school for disadvantaged children saw significant gains in cognitive skills development after implementing videogame-based developmental software.
The Glenwood School for Boys and Girls first introduced BrainWare Safari software, from developer Learning Enhancement Corporation, in the 2008-2009 school year, according to a story on NWI.com. As part of a pilot program conducted between September 08 and February 2009, 96 students were tested both before and after using the BrainWare Safari program for 30 minutes a day.
The kids who used the software ranged from second to eighth graders and posted improvements, measured from testing, in reading, writing and math, while cognitive abilities improved as well.
Glenwood Teacher and Reading Coordinator Anne Budicin said that she sees BrainWare as “an important part of our curriculum.” She added, “The emphasis on visual, auditory and working memory is excellent. The program enables students to be better thinkers. Better thinkers are better learners.”
Comments
Re: Illinois School Sees Gains from Game-based Learning
Control group, folks. Use a damn control group. Your results are absolutely meaningless without one.
So many studies miss this most basic of basic steps. It's astounding.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Illinois School Sees Gains from Game-based Learning
Well, phrases like "The students who used BrainWare Safari" do imply a control group. But you're right; it really should be stated directly.
Re: Illinois School Sees Gains from Game-based Learning
Perhaps but that's not the way it reads to me. Sounds like that sentence is just referring to the students who participated in the study, not a group of students that used the software as opposed to a group that didn't.
Andrew Eisen