New U. S standards in education are changing the way developers create educational games. GET YOUR EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS CORRECT, MATHBLASTER.
Common Core, a set of K-12 educational standards in math and language arts, has been adopted by 45 states across the United States, leading to new standards and guidelines in teaching. These new standards are an issue of hot debate right now, as many states are receiving push back and negative feedback to these newly adopted standards. According to multiple sources, including Education World and The Hechinger Report, game developers are racing to develop games that meet the standards laid out in common core.
This isn’t surprising for anyone tracking the development and implementation of video games in the classroom. Recent research estimates that the market growth of educational games will increase substantially in the coming years; the industry of educational game is a big and profitable one. The goal for these companies is to see their games be implemented into the classroom, which isn’t a lofty goal considering that over 70% of classrooms were found to incorporate video games in someway.
The number is only likely to rise in the coming years as more and more schools implement new technology into their classrooms, possibly fundamentally changing how children retain and learn new information. This is really interesting stuff, as just in the last decade we’ve seen how video games can be used as positive tools for educational reinforcement. From personal experience, educational games were used as a positive reinforcement tool in certain classes I took in elementary school. They worked, as students eagerly wanted to get their work done to be able to have more time playing games like “Sticky Bear” and “The Electric Chalkboard”. That was nearly 20 years ago, so I can’t imagine how complex and useful the games are now and days. If this is to become a norm in education, we’ll have to track and evaluate the potential changes it has on both education and socialization.
Was there an educational game that really made a difference for you or a family member? Let me know, I’m interested to know how games shaped different learning habits.
The Sociology of Videogames 
If only all countries made kids play games when they were supposed to be studying, there wouldn’t be so many people around the world fed up with studying when they get to college
Carmen San Diego was amazing, and I remember Treasure Mountain for math. I have to say, I think Putt Putt was more fun and games than educational! Also having worked in schools, I definitely agree that computer games are widely used with kids both in mainstream and special education.