Little Big Education – Sackboy makes learning fun

I may be alone here but, it has occurred to me that Little Big Planet is actually teaching me things.

Okay, here’s what I mean. At the heart of Little Big Planet is the game element. Load up a level and play a pretty much standard gaming formula. Various puzzles to solve, hazards to avoid and goals to attain. Granted this is all done to the highest degree of quality. Graphics and sound are top of the class and the interaction between you and Sackboy is almost parental in feeling. Add to that the ability to go on wild adventures with your friends and the game is propelled into the realms of a Masters Degree and beyond.

Essentially though, this is gaming, and as we all know “gaming is of no value”. Or is it?

The other side of this game is the “create” mode and this is where the fun starts…oops, I meant to say learning starts.

Now I’ve only published one level and even that is still locked and unfinished. But in that level is an extensive amount of painstaking calculating, problem solving, evaluating. I’ve used maths, geometry and even the odd bit of English here and there to ensure the finished article wasn’t spoiled by some bad grammar. Physics and electronics are paramount to ensure pistons lift and projectiles, well, project correctly. My living room floor is awash with graph paper, tracing paper, layout paper. I have tech plans drawn up with overlays of switches, hazards and routes. Every probability has been looked at, angles, arcs, gravity, trajectories we are talking actual rocket science in some cases!!!

My brain is being tested and it’s fun, I really am enjoying being hunched over a ruler and pen plotting courses and blueprinting inventions.

As an adult in my 30’s I’m refreshed by the way in which LBP has stirred long distant memories of the skills I strove to achieve in school. If I was a parent, I’m sure I’d be coming up with various challenges for my kid to solve. Not in the sense of creating something for them to play, but come up with a problem and have them come up with the solution using the basics of school….maybe that’s just me though.

A big kid at heart

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