The New York Times has a worthwhile piece on how video games are being employed in classrooms as learning tools . . . http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.html . . . eventually, we may see more classrooms using not only computers but computer games and even platform games and more as learning environments, perhaps even as major forms of curriculum delivery rather than only as supplement to traditional lecture and information presentation.  Certainly, games can be very complex and can be useful for not only skill testing but in presenting interesting ways for students to gain information.  I know I learned a LOT about mythology through playing tabletop RPGs when I was young and that experience encouraged me to explore areas outside the game as well.

Not coincidentally, this is one of my areas of interest as an academic and I use quite a bit of adapted game play in my own classrooms and have presented a number of workshops at academic conferences on the subject of game play and education.

– Brian