Your assignment: 20 minutes on your DS before school

Scottish authorities [have begun other trials of ‘More Brain Training
with Dr Kawashima’ on the Nintendo DS][] in 16 schools:

A 20-minute burst of the ‘brain training’ exercises on Nintendo’s DS
console at the start of the day apparently improves performance in
maths tests by as much as 10 per cent, according to a Scottish study.

The results of the completed 10 week study certainly are fascinating:

In a maths test at the end of the trial, their performance improved by
an average 10 per cent, and the time to complete the test also dropped
from 17 minutes to 13 minutes and nine seconds.

Pretty impressive results, although I don’t know what game they’re
talking about, unless it happens to be Brain Age 2. Checking Amazon UK
shows a DS game called More Brain Traing, which may just be a relabel
Brain Age 2. I guess I’ll have to do some more checking. What a solid
return on your investment though. It would cost a class of 25 \$3,750 to
outfit the entire class with a DS. Throw in the DS Browser and you have
even more ways to integrate it into your classroom.

How long until a company comes out with a mobile version of Brain Age 2
that you can play from any mobile computing device?

[have begun other trials of ‘More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima’ on
the Nintendo DS]: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3552834.ece