Maths and Online Games
Games for maths are making maths fun and enjoyable for all children involved in them. Interactivity plays a big role in the importance of games used for learning maths. When I was in secondary school was the first time I was introduced to an online interactive maths game, but this still was only essentially an online worksheet, with few to little animations you could interact with. Unlike this, now there are games in which you can create your own worlds by playing a character, proceed up levels to gain rewards, some even link with social media or other online games and can help with them too. This high level of interaction within the games, means the children forget about the idea that they are learning maths or doing maths homework, for to them they are only playing an enjoyable game. This is positive because it means that children are more willing to complete their homework as they enjoy it and are subconsciously learning through the individual maths tasks they have been set. But, does it mean that children are losing sight of what they are doing, if they are more focussed on the game itself rather than the math taking place are they really focussing and learning. If the only way to go up a level is to get the next two questions right, where is the incentive to get the next three right and begin to push themselves. If the children want to finish the game it is more than likely that they will rush through where they can, doing the bare minimum in order to pass up in this online world. it is also not to be said that all children find this method of learning effective for themselves. some children learn in a more direct way by putting pen to paper, not all children could be developing their maths skills by playing what they see as meaningless tasks. For these games to really work and really be effective I feel that (although interactivity Is an important factor,) the games need to be maths focussed and maths centred. without this solid focus children may begin to forget what and why they are playing.
Hi Ali, great post on the use of games in the teaching of maths in primary education! You made the point that games involve interactivity which is a very key skill. Despite this, it is essential to point out that generally, boys seem to have a more positive attitude to the use of games (Hainey et al., 2013), so it important to ensure the games being used are going to be used effectively by all pupils within a class. If want to know more, I will leave the reference to the journal in which I researched this information.
ReplyDeleteHainey et al., (2013) 'Student's Attitudes towards Playing Games and Using Games in Education: Comparing Scotland and the Netherlands', Computers and Education, 69, pp. 474-484.