Video games are no longer just an excuse to skip class, sit in front of the TV and beat a high score. Across the country, college professors are engaging their students by incorporating video games and augmented reality into the classroom. Here’s a look at how universities are implementing gaming into their curriculum:

1. Northern Illinois University- Professor of engineering Brianno Coller invented a video game where students must complete the necessary formulas and algorithms to successfully maneuver a video game car around an oval track. Coller’s educational technology has been deeply incorporated into the curriculum in two engineering classes and is used for regular homework assignments, and even the final exam.
2. University of New Mexico- Assitant professors Christopher Holden and Julie M. Sykes created Mentira, an augmented reality game used in Spanish classes at the University of New Mexico. Students play the game to enhance their conversational skills by solving a fictional murder mystery. Students are equipped with university-provided iPod Touches and travel to Los Griegos, a nearby Albuquerque neighborhood to begin their detective work. When they enter their location into the wireless handheld devices, they find a clue or a virtual character who converses with them in Spanish about a suspect.
3. Saint Norbert College- Professor Paul Waelchli of Wisconsin’s Saint Norbert College has integrated video games into his coursework to study the correlation between gaming behaviors and learning behaviors. Waelchli plans his lessons to incorporate group work centered on video games and the strategies included in such games. The games featured vary over a wide spectrum of options; sports-based games cover topics like franchise management and data construction, while Grand Theft Auto helps with problem solving and critical thinking.
4. MIT- The MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program has been working with augmented reality technology to engage people in simulation games. Players use handheld computers that set them in real-world locations to collect simulated field data, interview virtual characters, and collaborate to investigate artificial scenarios. These games encompass a variety of subjects; for example, Mystery at MIT is a game about environmental health and Timelab is a game based on the local impact of climate change. This new educational technology creates fun and effective location-based learning games.

It’s clear that video games, a long time favorite of college students, are developing into great, engaging academic tool. With the continued support from professors and universities, it looks as if the future of gaming, augmented reality and new media as an educational resource will be further integrated into the traditional learning environment.

Open content tools which started out as a small trend amongst a niche group of college students are increasing in popularity this year.

At GradeGuru we are witnessing a rise in student collaboration as more and more students take an active role in their education.

Open content tools that allow for this form of collaboration are likely to go mainstream this coming year as recently reported by Wired Campus.

EDUCAUSE and The New Media Consortium recently released their 2010 Horizon report offering insight into some of the technological changes occurring this year that are shifting the academic landscape.

What started as an academic movement spurred on by the MIT Open Courseware initiative has rapidly flowed into the student realm. The much talked about concept of “free” has come of age. Coupled with social networking, this has enormous potential to change the way students learn and expect to learn.

The introduction of tools like Google Wave, while yet to be fully introduced in an educational context is proving to have enormous potential in student collaboration and access to educational content -Google Wave’s functionality allows students to discuss and share videos and files all in real time . Professors are also beginning to explore the idea of Google Wave in the scope of academia.

A small subset of institutions are seeing the growth in open access tools and are adapting their current models accordingly.  For example,  Tufts University has begun offering learning material online free of charge.  In addition to this, Open universities such as University of the People, a tuition-free online academic institution, are leveraging technology in the educational sphere by offering students the opportunity to access educational content for free.

Not only are students finding free expert content available online, they are also creating their own content, sharing it, collaborating and in many cases reaping multiple benefits – shared knowledge, peer-review and encouragement, increasing their confidence as they work with and engage with their peers, and even financial rewards and career advantages.