What is Triseum, a company with the ambitious theme of 'revolutionizing education through games'?
There are many attempts to use games as educational tools, such as Google's development of '
The Company That Wants To Replace Textbooks With Video Games
https://kotaku.com/the-company-that-wants-to-replace-textbooks-with-video-1818736136
Triseum gets $1.4 million to make educational games on art and calculus | VentureBeat
https://venturebeat.com/2016/06/01/triseum-gets-1-4-million-to-make-educational-games-on-art-and-calculus/
Triseum, a Texas-based startup with the ambitious goal of replacing textbooks with games, was founded by Andre Thomas, who spent 20 years at the video game company EA, where he was responsible for graphics on sports games.
After leaving EA in October 2013, Thomas planned to create an interactive digital museum exhibit, but abandoned the idea because it wouldn't be profitable. He then worked in the video department at Texas A&M University, where he was approached by a professor of art history who wanted to create an educational video game but didn't know how. This prompted Thomas to launch the LIVE (Learning Interactive Visualization Experience) Lab, with the goal of developing educational games and incorporating them into classrooms.
'If you get 90 points in a traditional classroom, you'll be in a good class. But that's completely impractical. Would you enjoy driving a pilot who claims to be 90% proficient in flying? Pilots learn that in flight schools, but I don't think they can learn it through games. Why are students sitting in their seats bored in classes like physics, statistics, and mathematics?' He believes that by replacing all classroom learning with games, students can have a learning experience that is not boring and allows them to fully understand.
Triseum, led by Thomas, developed ARTé: Mecenas, a medieval art history learning game set in Renaissance Italy, in which players play as bankers and merchants who financially support artists.
In the fall of 2014, Thomas incorporated Triseum and received a grant to develop ARTé: Mecenas, a learning tool. The project was completed in March 2016. Following the art history game ARTé: Mecenas, Thomas began developing a game themed around calculus. While calculus is essential not only in college mathematics but also in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields, one survey found that 42% of students give up on it. Thomas believed that visualizing calculus, which can be difficult to visualize, would help students understand it better. Thomas also received a grant to develop a calculus learning game, and in 2017, he completed Variant: Limits, a game for learning calculus.
Variant: Limits™ Educational Trailer - YouTube
The LIVE Lab, which develops games as educational tools, currently employs 37 people. Of these, 30 are affiliated with Triseum, and the rest are students and staff from Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University will receive a share of the revenue from the games, and Triseum has a good relationship with the university, which allows it to draw on the help of talented game developers.
While Triseum's educational games have already shown promise in improving comprehension, they are by no means a substitute for a human teacher. The games offer tools to track students' progress and learning, and teachers can use them to guide their instruction, Thomas said.
According to Triseum, the introduction of educational games reduces educational costs and increases learning speed. 'For example, it would take four games to cover the same amount of content as a $300 textbook. However, even using just four games can save more than 60% on costs. Furthermore, using games for basic subjects can help students improve their proficiency in a shorter period of time,' the company said.
Triseum's games have already been introduced at over 200 universities, and the educational world is beginning to understand the effectiveness and potential of game-based education. Thomas hopes to revolutionize education using games.
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