Former Minnesota governor wants college courses to be more like Call of Duty

News
By published

Digital curriculum should replace traditional classroom courses, argues Pawlenty

Wouldn’t it be cool if you got to play videogames at home instead of attending lectures at a university? It sounds like the sort of idea a teenager might come up while daydreaming in the classroom. But the proposal favoring a remote learning system that favors interactive games over traditional lectures comes from former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.

Speaking at Iowa State University, the possible Republican 2012 presidential candidate argued that technology, particularly videogames, could help improve the quality of education. “Let’s say you can scale the best Econ 101 lecture and not a lecture, not some guy standing in a room lecturing but let’s say it has all the sights and sounds and video and visual components of Call of Duty 3, but now it’s Econ 101. Or instead of learning about WW II, you’re fighting in WW II.â€




Above: Well, if video games have taught us anything, it's that economic situations are just as exciting and riveting as a CoD online match

Pawlenty continued to argue that videogame-like distance learning could help defray the cost of higher education, citing the billions of dollars the University of Minnesota spent on its facilities and employees. He thinks the private sector could do a better with edutainment courses offered online.

But that doesn’t mean that Pawlenty thinks there’s no value to the traditional university experience because of the need for football teams and socialization. Yep, professional educators, scientists, important research, and a culture of learning can all be replaced by videogames, but football and drinking beer with your buds can't.

[Source: Des Moines Register,Fox News]

Mar 10, 2011

Got a news tip? Let us know at tips@gamesradar.com