Kinect Used to Teach Kids in South Africa

Microsoft’s Kinect is taking the world by storm. Not only have 10 million Kinect’s been sold, but its also gained a slew of unofficial hacks that move it beyond a gaming peripheral. Take for example, Microsoft’s new trial at the Lakeside Park Primary school in Vyrheid, South Africa that is using Kinect to stimulate and encourage school kids to learn English by engaging them in motion-controlled games. The trial is a small case study, but the teachers at Lakeside are already seeing positive results. Lakeside’s Deputy Principal, Karen Kirsten said, “Shy learners, who take months to speak up in class in their mother tongue – let alone in English, were already shouting out to classmates to ‘jump’ and ‘duck’ with no inhibition.” In Japan, Nintendo’s DS has been used to teach children and in the U.S. iPads in the classroom are all the rage, so why not Kinect? Should Microsoft’s project be a success, we wouldn’t be shocked to see Kinect spring up in classrooms across the world.