Valve is making its puzzle game free to install on PC and Mac until September 20 in the hope that it can used in an educational context.

Educationalists are increasingly aware of the role of video games as a learning tool and Valve Software believes that its popular title Portal can be used to promote spatial reasoning and critical thinking.

In making this title free to download, Valve said it wants Portal to be played by teachers to understand how much potential the puzzle game has in educating young students. In a statement reported by develop-online.net, Valve explained:

“It’s eye-opening to see how video games can be used in amazing and unexpected ways to help educate our next generation. Using interactive tools like the Portal series to draw them in makes physics, maths, logic, spatial reasoning, probability, and problem-solving interesting, cool, and fun which gets us one step closer to our goal - engaged, thoughtful kids.”

Valve recently welcomed a group of 7th Grade students to its headquarters where they were shown how to create their own levels for Portal. The experience of this novel field trip is demonstrated in this You Tube video:

Visit the Valve Store to download a free copy of Portal for Mac or PC before September 20.

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