In Another Life

With Good Reason

A lot of parents are tired of telling their kids to put down the video games, and pick up the textbooks. But now, video games are part of school. Lisa Heuvel says that Minecraft creates a unique opportunity for practicing effective teamwork. And IT specialist Jan Dougherty says that through games, students begin dealing with complex topics without even realizing it. Later in the show: A lot of people avoid exercising the parts that ache as they age. But James Thomas says that’s the worst thing you could do. He’s working with a team at VCU’s Motor Lab to create virtual reality games that move people beyond their fear of movement, and into feeling better. Plus: Jacob Enfield says that not all games are created equally. Without a real challenge, he says, educational games can be rather useless.