[Photo Credit: Google Images]
This article is about a middle school in North Carolina who started a remedial math program called virtual math for 6th through 8th grade students. Students could volunteer for this course if they did not score very high on the state math proficiency test. This class uses a game called DimensionM, which is highly interactive. The player assumes the role of a college students who lands on an island and has to use math to get through all of the levels. The games uses both pre-algebra and algebra skills and concepts. After each mission the students take a quiz, which has been integrated into the story line of the game After taking a quiz they get mission scores and are rewarded with a gold, silver, or bronze medal. To asses the the results of the students, before they started the practice mission they took a pretest on the concepts that were going to be in the first part of the game. After they completed the practice round they then took a posttest which shoed significant improvement. As the class went on the students began to make big improvements, some even passing the students in the normal math classes. It helped the lower performing math students feel more confident and upbeat about math.
As a future educator I think that this program could really help students who are struggling with math. I myself struggled with math and I think that if we did a program like this then it might have helped me learn the concepts easier. I think that if a program can help students catch up, or learn a different way, can really help students to feel more confident on the classroom and feel like they are achieving things instead of feeling helpless of dumb. Students need to be given the opportunity to learn things other ways since there are multiple different learning styles, teachers need to be able to work with each one and give everyone an equal opportunity to learn the different topics.
I looked through the ISTE standards and I am not sure which one fits with this topic. It might fit with standard number 3 for students. Standard 3 says evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
Gillispie, L., Parker, M., & Martin, F. (2010). Game Play is Important for Learning. Learning & Leading with Technology. 38(1), 28-30
This was a great article that you found. I myself was not very good at math and I am still not very confident in doing math. I think that if I had a a program like this that was offered to me at a younger age then I think it would have benefited me more. I am a very visual and hands on learner and something like this would have been perfect in order for me to understand the concpts.
ReplyDelete