This Video Game Blurs The Line Between Education And Entertainment

This Video Game Blurs The Line Between Education And Entertainment When I speak and consult about games and education, I regularly use Amplify Learning’s games as examples. The games are fantastic. Often with one glance, teachers, administrators, policy makers, curriculum designers, and parents understand why I advocate for game based learning. One of my favorites is Amplify’s SimCell, a role playing game in which the gamer controls a nanobot repairing a single cell from the inside--learning the vocabulary and structure of cellular biology. Every science teacher in the room instantly raises his or her hand and asks, where can I get that game? The problem is, they can’t. It is packaged as part of Amplify’s digital curriculum, sold to schools for use on iPads or the proprietary orange Amplify Tablet. Fortunately, that may change soon. Amplify just released their first direct-to-consumer learning game. It is a slick puzzle platformer called Twelve A Dozen that combines a moody high-contrast dystopian aesthetic with game mechanics which challenge players to master the basic operations of algebra.