1) The document proposes using Xbox Kinect gaming consoles in schools to promote right brain development through interactive learning experiences. 2) It argues that Kinect's ability to scan body movements and allow interaction could help teach abstract concepts through visualization and problem-solving. 3) The document suggests testing the platform in one school per state before wider rollout to address concerns from educators and build excitement around the idea.

1. The Right Game ‘Games lubricate the body and the mind.‘ Ben Franklin

2. Imagine a future where every school is connected by a platform that allows children to interact with each other whether in the same classroom or in another time zone. Where children’s movements can solve problems and abstract concepts are explained by the swipe of a hand across a virtual reality screen. Sounds like Star Trek doesn’t it?

3. We think it’s here now.

4. Longbow & Swan has an Xbox 360 with Kinnect. We love it. Seeing Christian trying to master Dance Central is truly one of life’s spectacles. It scans your body, ‘you are the controller’ – the gaming experience is amazing and revolutionary but the potential the device has for education is, we think, enormous. Especially in the development of right brain thinking where kinesthetic and visual acuity can be used to solve problems previously only answered by traditional teaching methods. Imagine learning about Pi and Pythagoras’s theorem by using your body and interacting with shapes. Wouldn’t it make it much more fun, much more sticky?

5. Imagine also being a developer when you know that every school in America has a networked Xbox Kinnect that you can create educational applications for. The opportunity and potential for increasing right brain learning through the adoption of this console platform within schools plus utilizing the wider principles of gaming in general are profound.

6. Here’s why and how we think it’ll work:

7. Body scanning kids and getting them out of their seats to learn, play and interact with other kids is at the heart of what the Kinnect platform does and is perfect for right brain development. The technology works. Now. Eight million Kinnects were sold over the holiday last year. Developers love it and the system has shown it’s further potential through many innovative (albeit illegal…) hacks. Kinnect recognizes individuals and works with groups of people. We think this is really important. Having kids interact in small groups with Kinnect at the fulcrum to solve problems and play is vital. Kinnect should not be solitary.

8. The more right brain applications you play and interact with, the more points you get. Children will amass points in the classroom in the same way that Xbox gamers collect points now. Points mean prizes – or in this instance a record of what right brain development a child has undertaken. The competitive element between pupils and within the school network will drive more use of the platform too. Schools will be able to compete in right brain quizzes and competitions with other schools due to the platform’s online capabilities. Because the Kinnect is a platform and all that’s needed is relatively cheap software to create right brain exercises and games, each and every school will have the same resources. Right brain thinking will become democratized. Say the color not the word Yellow Black Green Red Blue Orange Red Yellow Green

9. Putting Xboxes in schools will likely be a difficult concept for schools, educators, parents and even some children to grasp. It’s for this reason that we’d have to test the platform first. Let’s ask schools to apply for the platform – one school per state. Give it a semester of testing with schools playing and interacting with each other and see if it can be rolled out further. We think it would work and that this application and testing process would build awareness and excitement around the platform in wider education and society circles.

10. One last point - we believe that kids would be really excited about this platform and that given time the natural progression from using it everyday to exercise right brain thinking will progress to designing and making right brain applications for the platform itself. In this way the platform has the potential to become a self-perpetuating inspiration and creation center for right brain thinking.

11. Who’s going to pay for this? With over 130,000 schools in the US it’s going to be pricey. Perhaps we could persuade the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that charity begins a little closer to home than they might think.