Schools in Osaka, Japan Requiring Use of Nintendo DS for Learning
Ten elementary and middle schools in Osaka are going to be requiring their students to have a Nintendo DS. Better still, the school board is going to be the one distributing them, and the students will be using a variety of software to aid them in their education.
Not everyone is so happy about the decision. "The biggest complaint is about the use of taxpayer's money going straight into Nintendo's pockets," they say. "Hell, if they are going to go this far why not just make Nintendo part of the Japanese government? What's next, Wii Fit in gym class?"
Wait, I thought some schools were already doing that?
Or maybe that was the point.
In any case, Destructoid notes that unlike the American DS library, the Japanese catalog of titles is full of all kinds of good learning material:
If you've ever looked at the Japanese DS library, there is a plethora of study games that help you learn any number of languages, help you improve your kanji (oh how I use those games), or even help you read books. On top of that, there's plenty in terms of science and math practice, and only a select few of those items have come over to the US. We're only seeing bits, from the My Japanese Coach and its ilk and Brain Age, which really doesn't even teach you anything.
It will be interesting to see how well this works out... I just wish that such a thing were implemented when I was in school, I might have done better in some subjects. I guess the trade-off is that at least I got to grow up alongside the industry, and I wouldn't trade that experience for all the educational software in the world.
...besides which, I doubt the kids get to actually keep any of it.
