"Educational" games or games "with a message" never end up being fun.

Manga High seems fun.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23781017-software-lets-children-learn-as-they-play-on-laptops-in-class.do

The scene is a school in Southall, where a computer game that teaches maths is being used in a trial scheme. It is claimed that the programme could eventually replace teachers for some classes.

Called Manga High, the software is designed to look like a normal game, and features colourful graphics, sound effects and music. Pupils must solve a series of mathematical puzzles.

Featherstone High has spent two weeks testing the software in 90-minute lessons, with more than 120 taking part.

Neil Bradford, head of maths, said results appeared impressive so far.

He said: "We have used other maths software but the response to Manga High was amazing - we had one pupil who played the game at home for nine and a half hours over the course of a week.

"When the pupils are using it you can hear a pin drop in the classroom as they are all concentrating so hard.

"In the classes we've trialled the software, the teachers haven't had to do anything, children just become completely engrossed in the game.

"The teachers were very impressed, as while the games are fun, they really do help teach the curriculum."

http://www.openedsolutions.com/toby-rowland-manga-high.html

It’s a Friday in the UK, and near the end of the day. Toby Rowland, CEO of Manga High, is pleased at the number of high-level mathematics games played by students from all over the world. He estimates they will hit 12,000 games played by the end of the clock. And this is on a national holiday, and the teachers are not even teaching.

What’s happening here? Math games at Manga High, an online model for mathematics teaching has captured the attention of teachers and students in countries like England, India, and the United States. It’s the beginning of a new market in a highly fragmented academic software industry — fremium, highly challenging, games-centric mathematics teaching. [...]

Students that get looped into the free site find themselves looking for harder and harder challenges, which is a paradox to what most teachers experience, says Rowland. When they lead students to difficult questions in textbooks, they lack the motivation. “Teachers find harder questions in books as being unattractive, but what we see online is students actively wanting to answer extreme questions,” says Rowland.

Rowland says that up to a hundred schools a day sign up to access a functionality that trains the students for higher order thinking blended with a feet-on-the-ground teaching model where students work with teachers in groups to problem solve. But the student is tapped into the internet for a good length of sustained learning time, which works well with how Internet-raised youth access and play with information.

“In an hour, a student might do 250 math exercises,” says Rowland. “That density of work you can’t achieve in any other way.”