Phun, or Learning Physics the Fun Way

In the VR Lab at Umea University (Sweden) they have created a beautiful teaching help called Phun, where in a game like environment you get to experiment with all kinds aspects of Physics.

When I talk to teachers they sometimes think that making learning fun means making it simpler, dumbed down. Once I heard one say learning had to 'hurt a lot' for it to stick.

To me adapting teaching to our networked information-abundant world means making it fun, challenging, and relevant to me instantly. I've never equated fun with easy. Fun just means the learning process is more engaging, easier to stick to, not that the content is of less quality or less challenging. The work done in Umea is a case in point.

(found via the HumLab blog)