We've had many Game Boy Pockets, GBA SPs and other portable devices snatched up by certain agitated educators during our formative years, which is why the recent news of a new program to teach English to Japanese students using the Nintendo DS fills us with unbridled, elderly bitterness. Think of the things our generation of handheld companions could have taught us! Geometry from Tetris! Microbiology from Dr. Mario! Animal husbandry from Pokémon!

To be fair, the program (which was recently examined in a Reuters write-up) requires students at Japan's Joshi Gakuen all-girl junior high school to use special English-instructing software with the handhelds, which are collected at the end of each class to prevent any unsavory Pokédueling during recess. The program is just barely into its one-year trial period, though the school's vice principal is very optimistic -- if only he knew he was actually transforming his pupils into rot-brained, knife-wielding miscreants!

College game design courses are great for learning how to program games on a PC, but for the most part, getting access to console development tools has meant going to work for a licensed console developer. Sony is looking to change that with it's new PlayStation-edu program, which provides PS2 and PSP development kits for
"computer science and engineering students who want to understand how the hardware works in the PlayStation consoles."

The program isn't a charity -- schools will have to purchase the dev kits from Sony -- but the package comes with demo code, samples, documentation, and access to a support web site and forums. Seems like a good way for Sony to divert student developers' attentions towards their products and away from Nintendo-affiliated Digipen or Microsoft's XNA development tools.

Kaplan, Inc. has teamed with Aspyr Media to create an SAT prep game for the Nintendo DS, according to Newsweek. Versions are also on their way to PC and Mac, where the test prep software is already fairly common.

The project is early in development and does not yet have a name. Newsweek reports that it was Aspyr who pitched the idea to Kaplan. If this is a success, can we get a DS game to help us understand Special Relativity? Perhaps we can get Professor Layton or perhaps even Wario as our virtual teacher.

Developers Vicious Cycle Software have offered up the studio's cross-platform Vicious Engine middleware to students attending the Indiana University School of Education, giving those aspiring to a life of game development some helpful hands-on time with real-world tools.

But don't go expecting the university to churn out the next Puzzle Quest or Dead Head Fred, as according to the school, students will be using the engine to make so-called 'serious games." Students' games will be "designed to teach various subjects of their choosing," and will be part of a larger university study on "how people learn through games." Even so, we imagine the experience will likely prove invaluable for those students wanting to eventually grease the wheels of game development with their sweat and blood.

The Entertainment Software Association Foundation has announced the start of a new undergraduate scholarship program aimed at women and minority applicants who are looking to get into the games industry. Up to fifteen scholarships for $3,000 USD will be awarded, making for a grand total of $45,000 to be given away by the Foundation each year.

The scholarship applies only to full-time undergraduate students during the 2008-09 school year, and is targeted toward women and minority students who intend on entering the games industry. News of this scholarship closely follows the announcement of the second year of Penny Arcade's own scholarship, which awards $10,000 to a single student each year. The deadline for the ESA scholarship is May 15. More details can be found here.

The web comic-made-philanthropy Penny Arcade has announced the return of its self-titled Penny Arcade Scholarship, which aims to award $10,000 to a single student looking to get his or her foot wedged into the game industry's front door. The grant, now in its second year, asks those interested to put pen to paper and write a two-page essay describing their schooling and just how they plan on making an impact in the industry, on top of transcripts and two letters of recommendations.

According to the guidelines spelled out on the grant's website, a qualified applicant must also be a full-time student at an accredited college or university during the 2008-09 school year, must plan to enter the game industry "in some capacity," and must have a minimum 3.3 GPA. If you believe you have what it takes to stand out among what we expect to be a sea of applications, get to writing -- submissions have to be sent in no later than April 30, 2008, with the lucky student being notified by mail in July.

Say what you will about Nintendo, they know how to create new market segments. Case in point, the SmartBrains "State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008 report" which cites the Nintendo's Brain Age games as a key driver in growing the brain fitness software market to a $225 million industry, up 125% since 2005.

Though Brain Age games dominate the $80 million consumer segment of the market, the game has also been a key inspiration to the 20 companies that create similar brain training tools for everything from sports teams to the military. The various brain training products have been used in over 400 elder care facilities and five successful randomized clinical trials. One product even gained FDA approval for use in stroke rehabilitation. We just hope those stroke patients don't have an accent.

[Via BoingBoing]

It's like our favorite old-school commercial: "Mr. Owl, how many Playstation 3s does it take to simulate a collision between two black holes?" Apparently, the answer is 16.

A group at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth hopes to use a cluster of 16 PS3s to run the simulation, specifically looking at the properties of the gravity waves emitted by the collision. The cluster -- nicknamed the PS3 Gravity Grid -- was built with a partial donation from Sony, who must like watching really big stuff collide as much as we do.

Similar simulations have been run before (most notably by NASA), but this marks the first time the super-calculation has been performed using a game console. Like our colleagues as PS3 Fanboy, we admit that most of the technical jargon presented here is way over our heads. We're sure some of you will "get it," though, and not just resort to Tootsie Roll references.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Fans of the quirky Dreamcast classic Typing of the Dead will be elated to hear that Sega has not abandoned its sense of humor (or its love of zombie education). Via the latest issue of Famitsu Weekly comes news that Sega is developing English of the Dead for the Nintendo DS.

As you might guess, English of the Dead is a language training game, along the lines of Ubisoft's My French Coach. Using a version of House of the Dead 2 ported to DS (!), the game challenges players to correctly translate words into English from Japanese in order to ward off attacking zombies. Other modes include zombies that speak English out loud, where players must translate what they're saying.

While this exact game probably won't find its way to the States, it would be amazing if Sega were to use the same premise and apply it to other languages (like French of the Dead, which we've conceptualized above). We'll keep our fingers crossed. In the meantime, check out the Famitsu scans after the break.

[Via DS Fanboy]

LeapFrog deserves serious props for recognizing that video games can play an important role in a child's development of motor skills and critical thinking. Its Leapster portable system has been in the market for several years, and now LeapFrog is leaping ahead with both a web-connected upgrade to the portable, and a new model intended for older children.

Aimed at children ages 4-8, the Leapster2 appears to be largely a cosmetic upgrade to the original, but will include internet connectivity that will allow parents to monitor what games their kids have been playing, and track their growing expertise. New to the line, the Didj is aimed at children ages 6-10, and features a sleeker aesthetic, with a 3.2 inch screen and the same progress monitoring features as the Leapster2. The system will also allow its young users to personalize the look of each game, with custom avatars and backgrounds.

Both systems will be available summer 2008, with the Leapster2 priced at $69.99, and the Didj at $89.99 USD.

[Via Engadget]

Would you steal brains? USC Annenberg School for Communication associate professor Doug Thomas hopes to pose the question to tweens through his upcoming edutainment release Modern Prometheus. The game pits players as Dr. Frankenstein's lovely assistant, tasked with a number of difficult ethical questions, like: Steal brains outta the local cemetery to cure the plague or politely leave the dead to rest and soon join them?

Modern Prometheus takes just one hour to 'beat,' but gameplay is theoretically extended through both classroom and informal discussion (Thomas seems certain grave robbing could be a hot lunchroom topic). Actually getting Modern Prometheus into schools is the hard part, but Thomas hopes that by teaming with another edutainment developer, Indiana University professor Sasha Barab, and promoting through mediums like Second Life, he can work his game into middle school curriculum by springtime. "It's not Halo 3," says Thomas, "but for the age group we are working with now it's pretty good."

The engine behind Crysis is the current king-of-the-hill in the constant battle for technical superiority in games. So when the German Hochschule Darmstadt school reaches an agreement to license Crytek Studios' CryEngine 2 for their game development courses, it's a major coup.

In addition to gaining access to the high-end middleware engine, students at Hochschule Darmstadt will have access to the Crytek team itself. Crytek will host lectures on using the engine, as well as on general topics such as design and conceptualizing.

CryEngine 2 will be utilized for far more than simply game development: Hochschule Darmstadt hopes to use the technology in animation, video production, and sound design courses as well. It's a tremendous opportunity for students to be able to work with teams and technology of a AAA title, but does the highest-calibur technology necessarily give these students anything new to bring to the table?

"Want to play the world's greatest game? Well, you can't, because you haven't made it yet!"

Every time one of those commercials come on, tempting impressionable youth into delusions of game design grandeur and luring them into less-than-stellar colleges focused on game development skills, we cringe. Badly. To the point where our significant others wonder if we're developing some kind of chemical imbalance. Are these game-centric universities worth the money?

The experts over at GameCareerGuide lay out the various advantages and disadvantages of attending a game school (as opposed to a more traditional university). While leaving their final opinion ambiguous, the article does a great job of preparing up-and-coming bright minds about the ramifications of their educational decision. We're not going to give any sagacious advice, either, but we will recommend anyone considering a game development school to attend one near a cluster of development studios so that you can benefit from a co-op work program and do some beneficial networking.

Beware, bibliophobes! Nefarious librarians are luring gamers into their hallowed halls with promises of Guitar Hero goodness. The Fort Dodge Messenger reports that a public library in Humboldt, Iowa is using Guitar Hero as a hook to get teens interested in reading. Gaming aficionados from local schools were invited to the library to play the rhythm music game, and peers from the library's Teen Advisory Board used the opportunity to encourage reading as an enjoyable past-time. Books? Enjoyable? Who knew?

[Via GamePolitics]

The latest scientific study of gamers is kind of a wash for the image of our favorite hobby. On the plus side, adolescents who play games were shown to spend just as much time socializing with family and friends as non-gamers. On the downside, adolescent gamers were found to spend less time reading and doing homework than non-gamers.

The University of Michigan study asked nearly 1,500 10- to 19-year-olds across the country to report how they spent their time during the 2002-03 school year. The roughly 36 percent of the sample that played games spent 30 percent less time reading and 34 percent less time doing homework than their non-gaming peers. Interestingly, the reading deficit came mostly from male gamers while the homework deficit was caused mostly by female gamers, according to a Reuters story on the study. It's not all bad news though; the study also concluded that "gamers and nongamers did not differ in the amount of time they spent interacting with family and friends."

Before you go off believing that gamers are more likely to be lazy ignoramuses, understand that reading and homework time are not direct measures of intelligence. The study author herself admitted to Reuters that "there have been some studies that show that high academic achievers spend less time doing homework." In other words, perhaps gamers have just been trained to work smarter, not harder.