Intrepica

Recently a friend of mine started an education program for students who are in foster care that weren’t responding well to the traditional school setting. As part of the curriculum that he has developed, he incorporated a games-based literacy program that he came across called Intrepica.

Intrepica is an online digital learning environment full of visually rich activities that covers topics such as phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and so on. When participating in this online world ‘students are engaged in quality game-based literacy activities that reward achievement, and encourage personal development’. Each activity that the student completes is rewarded with virtual credits which can be spent either in The Shop, on accessories and clothing for their personal avatar or in The Arcade, on entertaining and challenging arcade-style games. Tasks can be set by the teacher in order to fit inline with curriculum requirements etc. Students can also explore the content themselves in the free learning section of the site.

My friend has seen great improvement in motivation to complete literacy tasks since implementing this games-based program. He says that all kids love working on the computer, so that, in itself is an incentive to get the work done. The young students around 10-12 especially love the program and quite often complete extra tasks in order to have more virtual credits to spend.

These kinds of learning entertainment programs are often referred to as ‘edutainment’ – trust the teachers to think of a name like that! They are games that are often curriculum based and attempt to teach key content in an easy and fun way. Some believe however, that although they bear the name ‘games’ they don’t resemble anything to the commercial off the shelf games ‘COTS’ that students are playing today. Many believe that ‘COTS’ promote learning of 21^st century skills, while edutainment provides nothing more than interactive quizzes. Both views sit at very different ends of the spectrum.

I believe that both have their place within the classroom. Not all students are interested by ‘COTS’ and likewise with edutainment programs. I think my friend’s experience is perfect example that in some cases they can and do work. It is a matter of finding the games and programs that are right for your students and implementing them in a way that will meet the skills needed to effectively participate in the 21^st century as well as be engaging, fun and interactive.

For further reading on what developments are happening in the world of ‘edutainment’ Moving Learning Games Forward is a great article put out by The Education Arcade.