Microsoft wants to put games in your classroom. They believe video games are powerful teaching tools. So much so, that they’re willing to create something known as the Games For Learning Institute (G4LI) at New York University in Manhattan. With guaranteed funding for at least three years.

OK, so three years’ funding for an institute like this is a drop in the bucket an airborne water-molecule evaporated off the bucket of Microsoft funding. But it can make a really big difference in getting proper educational research off the ground. And Microsoft wouldn’t be making a big splash about it unless they believed in it.

There’s some solid evidence now to back them up. Studies on the effectiveness of video games in learning environments have been chalking up the hits for a good long while now. Good goin’ guys. I wish I’d had more playful, experiential learning methods in my high school math classes. Then maybe I’d have grown up to be a marine biologist instead of a journalist with a low-circulation blog.

. . . no, wait! I actually love this job. Scratch that. But I am definitely buying my kids game consoles. As soon as I have some.

(Kids, that is, not game consoles.)