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Founder of Lauer Learning Introduces FF56!, an Educational Computer Game, at the 2006 Serious Game Summit
Panel focuses on the challenges of using multimedia educational products to teach kids history
Washington, D.C. - October 30, 2006 - Andrea Lauer Rice, founder of Lauer Learning, told attendees of the 2006 Serious Game Summit that games can be effective, alternative teaching tools in settings where kids learn independently and in small groups. The key, she says, is to embed ways to keep them challenged and motivated to stay with the game. Lauer Rice introduced the new FF56! educational history game as an example of an effective gaming tool.
The 2006 summit, which focused on exploring new ways to broaden the spectrum of uses addressed by serious games, included the value and importance of integrating game technology into teaching and learning methodologies. Lauer Rice and her co-speaker Nick DeKanter, vice president of Muzzy Lane Software, presented their experiences with games as a media form for education. Their discussion, “You Can't Change History! How Games Require Us to Rethink What and How We Teach” explored the differences in game presentation for classroom teaching and independent learning.
“We demonstrated how teaching history with games is exciting and effective, but requires some reevaluation of traditional teaching techniques,” said Lauer Rice. “We explained to conference attendees that teaching history using games require changes in the way we instruct, learn, and structure content. In addition, we discussed how games can also be used effectively by kids in both formal and informal learning environments.”
Lauer Rice founded Roswell, Ga., based Lauer Learning to create multimedia, educational products for kids -- teaching about history, language and culture. The first game project, FF56! (www.freedomfighter56.com), an educational game about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, was just released in time for the 50th Anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution. The company is also designing games as bilingual language learning aids for toddlers.
According to Lauer Rice, games are a unique media form that will be probed and studied as they attempt to be a key part of the educational and training infrastructure of tomorrow. “What we have found in our studies, is that historically based games that are more informal, like FF56!, must provide the users with motivating factors that maintain a student's attention. When we combine exciting gameplay with a good story that is peppered with educational content, students will remain engaged and they will learn.”
Lauer Learning is a multimedia educational company that creates interactive products to teach children foreign languages, cultures and historic events through experiential learning. Two Hungarian products, the first cluster of a series of 'learning by playing' modules, will be launched in 2006 -FF56! a bilingual, historically-accurate, educational computer game for teens about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and “Kis Majom” or “Little Monkey”, a Language Learning Packet consisting of DVDs, books and flashcards, to help parents raise their toddlers bilingually. The computer game will be available in early fall and “Little Monkey” will be released in time for Christmas 2006. In addition “56 Stories”, a collection of personal testimonials collected through the FreedomFighter56.com website, will be published and on the market in October. All products will be available for purchase through the www.LauerLearning.com website.
The Serious Games Summit D.C. (SGS D.C.) gives professionals from the public and private sectors, policymakers, contractors, military personnel, government administrators, educators and experts in the game development arena an opportunity to meet and learn from successful serious games applications of interactive technology that extend far beyond the traditional videogame market, including: training, policy exploration, analytics, visualization, simulation, education and health and therapy. |
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