For many students, the idea of playing video games for homework is a dream come true. For others, it's a reality.
Thanks to 360Ed - a City of Orlando-based digital media company with the goal of getting students as interested in education as they are in games and movies - students have a fun, interactive hands-on approach to learning.
Created by video game industry veterans in 2006, 360Ed is "taking content that may not be interesting and adding production value to it in order to make it engaging," explains Ben Noel, president and CEO of 360Ed.
One of their first projects was partnering with the Florida Virtual School to create "Conspiracy Code", an American history adventure game complete with ongoing instructor feedback for 10th graders. In the game, students use characters to solve clues and each clue acts as a history lesson.
360Ed also teamed up with the Florida Department of Health and the University of Florida College of Medicine to develop Burn Center, an interactive 3D game-based technology used to train medical professionals at trauma centers, hospitals and universities across the country. The purpose of the program is to improve the triage and care of critically injured victims of burn, bomb and blast disasters.
Below, Ben Noel explains Burn Center.
