The A-Team: J.P. Bennett

J.P. Bennett: "When learning isn't fun, we're doing a disservice to our students…."

J.P. Bennett is one of the younger teachers on the Advance Team, and he knows a thing or two about digital games. In fact, on the day after a new version of the popular game "Halo" was released, J.P. had a big surprise for some of his less energetic students: "A few of my students were just extraordinarily tired that day and I knew what was going on. I asked them 'How far did you get last night in 'Halo'?' It turned out that some of them had been up until 3 or 4 in the morning playing 'Halo.' It made me think about how fantastic it would be if kids felt that level of excitement about a learning activity, about a learning game."

And it’s J.P.'s quest for that cutting-edge learning game has led to his involvement with the LG2G Advance Team. For the past four years, he’s taught Math, Language Arts and Social Studies at the Father Kolbe Elementary School in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. While J.P. is well-versed in gaming and technology in general ("Halo" and "Madden" are his favorite games), he hasn't used digital learning games in his teaching. His experience at the Advance Team Institute, though, has opened his eyes to some new possibilities. "I really liked playing the game 'Zoombinis,'" J.P. says. "It doesn't get caught up in the jargon of math. It helps to build the architecture of kids' brains. It helps them to learn how to think about math. And then they can apply that thinking in a more formal way when they work on their math problems." And because the game play is fun, it satisfies another of J.P.'s requirements for a successful learning tool. "When learning isn't fun," he says, "we're doing a great disservice to our students."

So what are J.P.'s hopes for LG2G? "I want it to be as shiny as the commercial games. I think of it this way – when you’re really excited about giving someone a Christmas present, you don't just stick in a sack under the Christmas tree. You wrap it up. You make it look exciting and inviting." And reflecting on his students who stayed up all night playing "Halo," J.P. says "We need to make Learning Games to Go exciting, so kids will really want to play it."

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