Activision Blizzard joins education organization

Call of Duty maker takes up White House's Educate to Innovate call by joining science, technology, engineering, and math-promoting coalition. President Barack Obama rolled out his Educate to Innovate initiative last week and in the process announced a number of game-design grants to help promote science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competencies among the country's youth. Private companies have also taken up the White House's education initiative, with Activision Blizzard announcing today that it has joined the Change the Equation philanthropic organization.
Activision Blizzard hopes to level up kids' real-world skills, too.
A 100-member coalition, Change the Equation was founded by former Intel CEO Craig Barrett, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, Eastman Kodak CEO Antonio Perez, and Sally Ride Science CEO Sally Ride. The executive quintet was aided by financial backing from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.Calling itself a "non-partisan CEO-led" group, Change the Equation's stated goal is to "solve America's innovation problem." Aiming to accomplish this objective through private and philanthropic means, the organization promotes improving STEM teaching at all grade levels, with an emphasis on cultivating a larger, more racially, ethnically, and gender-diverse pool of teachers. The coalition also hopes to increase interest in STEM programs among the youth, primarily among women and minorities. Further, Change the Equation hopes to cement its contributions by creating a prolonged commitment to STEM fields at the corporate and governmental levels.Activision Blizzard isn't the only gaming company to be a member of Change the Equation. Xbox 360 maker Microsoft is also a member of the organization, as is Gears of War creator Epic Games. A full list of member companies is available on the Change the Equation Web site.

Cool, however I don't think it's really going to solve things.

I agree, but if they can make a educational game as fun or as addicting as W.O.W. then there is business lol

They've been making educational games for years! How should this be any different? Remember Math Blasters? I played that shit for hours on end, at school and at home. I still suck at math...>.> (Hurray for calculators!)

Anyways, education games have been out since the Atari 400 home computer, probably a littler earlier than that, as far as electronic gaming goes. That's mainly what the Atari 400 and 800 consisted of. Not to mention other educational titles they've made throughout the years.

Educational games for kids are a great thing, however, it's not the solution. It really all boils down to the teachers, parents and the individual needs of the student. However sadly, across the states, all the schools focus on is how much money they get for each grade the school gets. So if the school is lagging behind because of some students are not doing as well as the others, they simply coaxes them into dropping out to help raise that grade. I've seen this for my self, and witnessed it first hand. It's sickening.

Basically how it goes, is that you have A,B,C,D,F. The higher the grade, the more money they get. All based on how many students pass or fail a standardized test. Schools with too many failing students are closed down.

I also read in an article somewhere that the U.S is actually not the top education oriented country anymore. I think it's somewhere around 13th. That's terrible that we're not even in the top ten. I don't say this for American pride, I'm no patriot, but that fact that we lowered our self into that position, when this country was pretty much founded on the pretense on higher learning and education.

I almost hate to admit it, but we actually need to put down the controller and pay attention to the individual needs of the students. Parents and teachers alike.

wow, were getting stupid lol and yea I remember math blasters I loved that game.

I agree to be honest with the last statement

Unfortunately yes...America is becoming stoopid -.-'