能想象玩家通过在游戏中赚钱积分、徽章和等级能够换得在校好成绩，这些并非仅仅代表枯燥的字母或数字？Zynga首席执行官马克·平卡斯似乎认为这个方式能够提高儿童在校表现，就像《FarmVille》开发者最近投资Grockit公司（游戏邦注：其推出的Grockit是款教育应用）。这家旧金山初创公司将沉浸性的社交游戏机制应用于学校教育当中，携手备受瞩目的公立学校网络KIPP将游戏化SAT和ACT测试准备应用带入其旧金山、洛杉矶和圣地亚哥校园中。

frontierville-school

由于Grockit平台安全性很高，因此堪称KIPP的完美搭档，而且Grockit还能根据用户的优劣势提供个性化指导。如果这个模式取得成功运作，双方的合作协议将能为全国的KIPP学生创造大型在线SAT/ACT备考游戏。

据Grockit首席执行官Roy Gilber表示，公司目前正致力于开发中学课程程序（游戏邦注：这是很多人呼吁改革的领域）。社交游戏机制能否提高学生学习兴趣和在校表现呢？这还有待时间证明。但总得进行尝试才知道，对吧？（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Can social games improve schools? Zynga CEO Mark Pincus thinks so

Could you imagine earning points, badges and levels for good grades in school instead of just a boring letter or number? Zynga CEO Mark Pincus seems to think that this method could improve kids performance in school, as the FarmVille creator has recently given some financial oomph to Grockit, VentureBeat reports. This new San Francisco-based startup, which applies addictive social game mechanics to school work, has partnered with a high-profile charter school network known as KIPP to bring gamified SAT and ACT test preparations to three of its schools in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.

VentureBeat reports that, because the Grockit platform is secure, it’s a fine fit for the KIPP network, not to mention that Grockit can provide personalized instruction based on users’ strengths and weaknesses. VentureBeat predicts that, if successful, the partnership could create a massive, online SAT/ACT preparation game for KIPP students nationwide.

And according to Grockit CEO Roy Gilber, the company is working on creating high school course programs, a place that some would argue is crying for change. Whether social game mechanics will improve students’ interest and performance in school is something we won’t see the results of for some time, but we gotta’ try something, right?（Source：Games.com）