For years now, Nintendo is putting its DS in Kyoto classrooms on the grounds that it was a good tool to study math or foreign languages with. Nintendo’s probably right. And now, the game maker is doing the same in the States but with art.
Granted, this isn’t the first (or last) time that the DS has been used in American classrooms. This time around, Nintendo is teaming up with the National Art Education Association to put the DSi XL, along with copies of Art Academy, in classrooms.
“The abundance of visual images being displayed through technology is transforming the ways art education in schools can be presented to students,” said Deborah B. Reeve, EdD, NAEA Executive Director. “In today’s schools, an emphasis is still placed on rational and analytic subjects like math and science. Art class is one of the few places where kids can exercise their creativity and develop flexible forms of thinking to build additional skills for their future.”
Art classes are often cut from schools programs. Not quite sure how this will stop that — also not quite sure how this is as creative (or cheap) as drawing on a blank sheet of paper. But, hey, whatever gets kids into art, right?
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