Japanese school students may benefit from the use of Nintendo DS handheld game consoles in the classroom, as the popular device has been found to have a wide variety of uses away from regular gamers.
Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto recently spoke with the AP about his future ambitions, including a stronger push towards DS in the classroom, and increasing the Wii's online presence to better compete with the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3. Custom games could utilize the touchscreen, microphone and wireless support that is offered with the DS.
Some museums and aquariums in Japan already use the DS for non-gaming purposes, with its DSi XL especially showing potential for multiple uses. The DS sold 613,000 units in February, and continues to set gaming sales records in Japan.
If successful, Nintendo hopes to increase the number of possible customers by working with cities and school districts. There has also been interest in finding ways to implement the DS into the Japanese government, but only at the local and city levels.
I attended my freshman year of high school at a school in Massachusetts that specialized in efforts to incorporate PC's and other technologies into the curriculum. I spent a large amount of time using the computers at school to work on projects, type essays, and do class-work.
I found using technology sometimes was distracting in the class room, which I think can happen in Japan -- especially if the students start playing games on the DS units.
