News article on the educational value of World of Warcraft.

The first 200 words of this essay...

WOW conquers school education:

It is not unusual for video gamers to order pizza, get an energy jolt and then play the World of Warcraft for hours. In this case, the person talking is John Smith an educational researcher who has organized an afterschool activity for the kids, the massive online role playing game WOW. The group includes some eight to ten graders, who don't care anything about writing or reading in school. Yet these students from, barely writing two sentences in school, have gone and written long posts, in the game forum.

This idea will probably prove a tougher sell for parents who restrict their kids from playing too much of video games. They might want to talk to Sam. Sam is a full time dad, who plays online games with his kids whenever they like, and leads a group of homeschooling parents and kids in a WOW guild called the "Awesome Unschoolers." Many homeschoolers study with kids but the Unschooling philosophy does away with trappings of formal education. Each household has its own twist that leads to parents following and encouraging the interests of kids.

"They will learn by following their interests," Sam said, "So