Fancy a mobile phone game for your child with underlying messages like the need to wash your hands with soap before eating, how best to preserve water, or what to do in a flood or tsunami?
“More and more children, including those in developing countries, have mobile phones… Instead of ‘Snake’ [a game on many Nokia mobiles] you could have a game that educates,” Joke Witteveen, head of Xmediaworks, a company that makes instructive games for teachers, scientists, health-care specialists and for corporate training, told IRIN in Istanbul.
[…] A well-designed game could help get across to children some important health and environmental messages. “You can use many games on a mobile phone for that,” Witteveen said. “We spend a lot of time waiting for a bus or in a bus, so why not use that time?”
She acknowledged, however, that mobile phone or any other interactive games could only supplement mainstream education. “You still need the parents; you still need the school teachers to guide children… When you use gaming or media you still need somebody to put it into context,” she said.
Source: IRIN, 23 Mar 2009
Sanitation Updates 