In an effort to promote video games as a viable tool for education in schools, the Institute of Play has partnered with Electronic Arts and the Entertainment Software Association to establish a new game lab focused exclusively on making games for students across the United States.
Known as Glass Lab, the new non-profit studio has received $10.3 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and is located alongside EA's headquarters in Redwood City, California.
Developers at the lab both will create new games and modify existing titles to help students learn essential skills deemed critical by state school districts. By teaching students about spatial reasoning, systems thinking, and other related skills, EA, the ESA, and the Institute of Play hope the Glass Lab will help U.S. students prepare for higher education and their eventual careers.
In essence, the lab's goals are not unlike Valve's
recently announced classroom initiative, which uses a modified version of the company's
Portal games to help students learn about problem solving.
When the Glass Lab completes its education-focused projects, it plans to make the titles available to students and school districts at little to no cost.
For more information, visit the Institute of Play's
official website.
[
Update: This article has been updated to note that the $10.3 million grant went to the lab itself, and not EA or the ESA. Gamasutra regrets the error in the original story.]
