Given the popularity of  computer games at home, it is hardly surprising that there is an increasing interest in their use at school. A growing number of teachers use games in their teaching, and this trend was picked up by the Department of Education about four years ago. One teacher in particular, Tim Rylands, was using the adventure game MYST with his pupils in a rural school in southwest England. The game was engaging and motivating his students to willing improve their use of English. Sitting in the midst of the students, Tim helped them navigate their way through the game and got them to describe what they saw and how it made them feel. The combination of game play with written and spoken exercises saw a dramatic increase in the students' SAT scores.

This led to the Department and various agencies undertaking research about the effect that games in learning have on teachers and pupils, and the commissioning of commercial off-the-shelf games being adapted for an educational environment. In Scotland, Derek Robertson of Learning & Teaching Scotland set up the Consolarium, a space where teachers could come and explore games consoles and games that they could use in the classroom. Derek has also been the driving force behind the pilots in Scottish schools of using the Nintendo DS console with games such as Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training and Nintendogs; the Nintendo Wii with Endless Ocean; and Guitar Hero on the Playstation. All of these appear to have had an impact on the students engagement, motivation and educational gains.

Just over a month ago, we saw the first conference in the U.K. dedicated to games in learning, Games Based Learning 2009. This brought together practitioners, who are using games in their teaching and learning as well as key people from the games industry, researchers, representatives of government departments and educational software developers who have or were looking at how they could develop resources using games approaches with sound pedagogy. Plans are already afoot for this conference to grow bigger and better next year, so keep and eye on the Web site and see what they come up with.

I think we will see more of this exciting approach to engaging students over the coming months and years. Let's see what happens.