British Schools Will Use Nintendo Games to Teach ‘Life Skills’

I am perhaps showing my age here a little, but when I was at school the closest you got to ‘gaming on a computer’ was then they would wheel in the (one and only) BBC Micro. It was usually situated on a trolly and treated with all the reverence of a holy relic. From there, however, you could access basic ‘educational’ games to teach you various things usually in the form of crude text-based adventures. The school did, incidentally, upgrade to an IBM-2 just as I was leaving.

Yes, schools and computers have often had something of an awkward relationship. In a report via PCGamesN, however, British Schools are reportedly set to start including Nintendo games in classrooms. Specifically, as a means to teach kids ‘life lessons’. This presumably isn’t learning how to cope with a 10 death streak in Call of Duty.

British Schools To Introduce Nintendo Games

Digital Schoolhouse, a government-backed non-profit organisation is going to start working with schools in the UK to introduce Nintendo games to the classroom. They hope to use the medium to teach kids ‘life skills’ and it has, at the very least, been confirmed that ‘Smash Bros. Ultimate’ will be amongst those used.

The main key focus, as you might expect, is looking to build teamwork. There is, however, research that suggests that gaming at a young age can help promote brain development and growth.

What Do We Think?

As mad as this might sound, in the right context it could prove to be a very useful tool. The team at Digital Schoolhouse have been working on this project since 2014. As such, they clearly have a lot of experience in using gaming as an effective teaching method.

So, when your kid/s come home from school and you ask them what they learned today, if they reply “how to pwn on Smash Brothers”, don’t accuse them (at least not straight away) of being a liar.

What do you think? What computers did you have at school (if any at all)? – Let us know in the comments!