Wii Music in the Classroom

www.msnbc.msn.com...

For those of you who don't like reading things more than a few paragraphs in length, I'll sum things up for you. Sixty teachers nationwide "have begun to integrate 'Wii Music' into their regular curriculum." The article ends with the touching story of a shy little girl who didn't like to play music in the classroom until Wii music came along and saved the day!

The reason this makes me want to punch a toddler in the face is because Wii Music is a disgrace. If you haven't seen (or heard) it before, I advise that you click the link below.

www.youtube.com...

Yeah, if you still doubt its suckiness feel free to watch any other video about the game. They all suck. Seriously...the fact that teachers are using THIS as a tool is insulting to me on so many levels; as a gamer, as a musician, as a life form with cognitive function. I want to sail over to these schools, find these teachers, enslave them and make them work in the mines for 12 hours a day, and set up missions where these kids are able to learn without the aid of VIDEO GAMES!!!

Sure, I play video games. A lot. And the fact that Wii Music is possibly the worst game I've ever seen aside, I've never learned anything from a game that was intentionally designed to teach me something. Those old computer games created to teach kids spelling and math didn't actually work; they taught me to guess until I got the correct answer. The only learning that occurred as a result of video games was an increase in vocabulary from certain RPGs. I'm not saying that all the dialogue made me a better reader, I'm saying that because of Fallout 3 I know what an Entomologist is.

I love guitar hero, and I love rock band even more. The rock band mic and drums actually sort-of train you to sing and play drums in real life, and if you screw up in both games you know it. The notes don't play and you fail the song if you suck hard enough. That actually teaches kids soooooomething about music. In Wii Music, however, you can just keep banging your fists against imaginary piano keys and miraculously # out something like the moonlight sonata.

LOL! I hear you. Every child psychologist under the sun will tell you that kids learn by actually doing. Pretend play is great but you can't "pretend spell" or "pretend math" so I doubt "pretend music" is much better.

Guitar hero won't turn you into the next Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page anymore than a Speak and Spell will make you a literary genius.

Did I just date myself? Make that a Leap Frog...

Yeah if they could do anything, give them Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour. Atleast they could learn the basics of drumming/singing that way.