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Filed under:   Games based learning plays an important part in education, but could budget cuts and technological advances change the way schools adopt this technology? bee-it’s own Bryan Plumb investigates...
Last year I was made aware of a US-based system called OnLive which enables people to play high-end console games over the internet on even the most basic of home computers. To put this into perspective, it means that in the very near future, rather than owning a Playstation, PC and an XBOX, you could have a basic computer which is hooked up to the internet yet still have access to games from all of these consoles. So, how does this work?
The concept of accessing services through the internet in this way – known as ‘cloud computing’ – is not particularly new. If you have a Spotify account you will have listened to music without actually downloading the songs; you may have created documents through Google Docs; you might have even watched, or ‘streamed’, movies through your internet to your computer; Well, this is essentially what cloud computing is – you are accessing data and services which are not on your computer itself, but in what’s known as the ‘cloud’.
 OnLive allows people to play high-end console games over the internet on their computers
Fast-forward a year and an email pops into my inbox telling me that OnLive is now available for the UK market so I decide to have a little play around with it.
Once you have downloaded the browser application, you are presented with a catalogue of games which you can try for free, experience courtesy of a three or five day pass, or buy outright. The cost of buying a game outright tends to be similar to that of the physical version – somewhere around the £30 - £40 mark.
On my work computer and personal laptop, the games load at a shockingly quick speed and the graphics are truly stunning. I begin to think about the potential for use within schools – rather than paying for a console and the games alongside it, schools could simply rent games on a three-day basis, stream them directly onto a computer and play them within seconds. This approach could potentially lead to significant savings and would enable schools to access games from a variety of consoles without ever having to purchase one to begin with. However, could it work from a technical point of view?
John McLear, Managing Director of Primary Technology and developer of Primary Games, believes that there are a number of technical issues which would need to be addressed before this technology could be adopted in schools. He explains:
“OnLive can only be cached at Content Delivery Network (CDN) level which means the school’s internet connection creates a bottleneck. I would expect a school could get maybe ten computers in a secondary on a game and two in a primary before facing latency issues.”
Essentially, this means that a school could only have a couple of computers utilising the service before the network invariably slows to a halt. Not ideal if you have a class of 30 pupils all wanting to get involved!
However, there are other gaming technologies being developed which schools may be able to take advantage of. McLear continues:
“Games development companies have different approaches, but I’m confident WebGL (Web Graphics Library) will be the technology standard that’s most widely adopted. WebGL still requires a graphics processing unit, however these come as standard in most computers – in fact, I think some mobile phones are even getting them now!”
Utilising technologies such as WebGL means graphically demanding games can be played through a standard internet browser without any additional downloads, and the limitations would be greatly reduced meaning more computers could access games at the same time. Should computer games development companies place more emphasis on using such technologies, then on demand gaming could be hugely beneficial for the education sector, and rental services such as OnLive may begin adding educational titles to their games libraries. Until then, it’s just a nifty idea that makes home gaming a little more accessible however, it’s definitely technology for the education sector to keep an eye on.
What are your thoughts on this story? Add your comments below.
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