Abertay University has enlisted one of the UK’s computer games entrepreneurs in a project to give school children innovative games software to support their learning.
Chris van der Kuyl has been appointed chairman of Add Knowledge Ltd – the spin-out company formed by Abertay to develop video games that will teach key elements of the curriculum through the use of cutting edge design and development. He is committed to building the next generation of business people by encouraging enterprise education in schools, colleges, and universities.
Chris van der Kuyl is a highly experienced chief executive and non-executive director whose expertise combines the start-up, development and market listed business arena in the technology, media and entertainment sectors. He has been chairman of Young Enterprise Scotland for the past seven years, is a member of the Entrepreneurial Exchange and sits on the Smith Group advising the Scottish Executive on educational matters.
Add Knowledge is now working with Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS), the Scottish Executive public body responsible for leading curriculum and technology in schools, to develop a two-year pilot project in a number of local authority areas across the country.
If successful, the pilot project could lead to the rollout of the concept across Scotland, providing more than 400,000 primary school children with their own learning consoles.
Chris van der Kuyl said: “This is a very exciting project which has the potential to revolutionise education and learning in Scotland. Similar projects in the USA have been extensively studied and shown to be capable of significantly improving pupil attainment but on this side of the Atlantic we have only just begun to scratch the surface of applying computer games technology to education.”
