The father of video games seeks to improve modern education

In an attempt to merge video game technology and learning, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell believes that using a game-based education program, delivered via cloud gaming technology, is the next step in fostering in a new era of education in America.

“I've been working on an education project for about 10 years now," Bushnell announced at Cloud Gaming Conference USA, "and it turns out that educating children and computers go together.”

The brainchild behind this idea is a project called Speed to Learn, which uses a cloud network to boost the quality of learning at all different grade levels. If successfully integrated, high school students could be receiving their diplomas in less than four years.

“We've been in hundreds of classrooms with 40,000 kids. We are currently teaching subjects 10 times faster. We believe that when we roll this up to full curriculum we'll be able to teach a full career of high school in less than a year, and we think we'll be able to do that by the end of next year,” Bushnell said.

Current computer conditions in schools may be ill-suited for this task. Many young students and their inquisitive nature may inadvertently damage the machines and cause a host of administrative problems. Cloud technology would remove this issue, however, as technical support could be handled at an off-site location.

“If you go into a class of fifth graders - say there's 30 of them - and they all have computers, I guarantee you that 10-15 percent of those computers do not work. They're virus infected nightmares,” Bushnell said.

Bushnell's grim outlook on the educational system in the U.S. has been one of the main driving forces behind Speed to Learn.

"Our public school is a disaster," Bushnell said. "It's creating an underclass that will erode the foundation of our society. The kids who happen to have won the lottery and been born to rich parents can survive. The parents make sure the kids are either in private school or something. The kids who have lost the lottery are being put into schools with dysfunctional teachers."

Whether or not Bushnell's right, there's no doubt that our lives are becoming more digitized everyday, but time will tell if further merging technology with education will really remedy America's educational problems.