W.T. White Stats Teacher to Talk Up Video Games and Kids on NPR

This LEGO has proved a rather remarkable educational tool in at least one household I know of. Something to keep an ear out for today: In a couple of hours, National Public Radio will post to its Web site the audio for a story titled "Using Video Games to Get...

By Robert Wilonsky

June 13, 2008

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This LEGO has proved a rather remarkable educational tool in at least one household I know of.

Something to keep an ear out for today: In a couple of hours, National Public Radio will post to its Web site the audio for a story titled "Using Video Games to Get Kids Excited About Science." Among the folks to whom host Farai Chideya will pose the question, "Can video games help kids develop in meaningful ways?" is Jerone Mitchell, a statistics teacher at good ol' W.T. White High School.

On a personal level, I look forward to this story for two reasons: In 10 years or so, if the trees haven't killed us first, my kid will go to W.T. White. And if the LEGO Indiana Jones video game is any indication, then, yes, they do indeed serve "as a portal to learning about math and science." Because my 4-year-old desperately wants to be an archaeologist now, which is so much better than what he used to want to be: a newspaper writer. --Robert Wilonsky

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