The Nintendo DS is the only console I would consider when buying for a child for educational purposes. The DS has many games aimed at education, especially improving math and English skills. For that very reason, the Joshi Gakuen school in Tokyo is giving teachers an opportunity to use the DS as a tool for helping Japanese kids learn English.

The program is a one-year trial run consisting of weekly sessions on the DS. The program focuses on vocabulary, penmanship, and audio comprehension, as well as spelling. The Japanese Education Ministry leaves decisions on which educational tools to use up to the individual school. so this is not a widespread program – yet. If success with this school is high, I would anticipate the program to spread to other schools in Japan. Even the students enjoy learning in this manner, because it feels like a video game to them. After class ends, however, the DS consoles and games are collected so students do not have access to them during other classes.