Educational Video Games With a Mix of Cool and Purpose – NYTimes.com

James Paul Gee, an education professor at the University of Wisconsin who was an early adviser to the software company Tabula Digita, said that in the last two years the company’s 3-D multiplayer games for math and science have evolved into exercises for improving children’s test scores as the company sought wider adoption.

Last year, Tabula Digita broke even selling subscriptions to 700 schools, said Ntiedo Etuk, its co-founder and chief executive. The subscriptions cost $7 to $20 a student for each subject. Next year the company plans to introduce a multiplayer product that parents can subscribe to for home use.

Mr. Etuk said his company’s games go beyond “skills and drills” because they reach students in a format that is relevant to them, especially because the games’ alternate universe, where children wear jetpacks, looks and feels like a real video game.
(Link: Educational Video Games With a Mix of Cool and Purpose – NYTimes.com)