Math Video Games

Recent I've read many articles and research reports about technology and video games in general. I've learned much from these, but my real interest, as the title of my blog suggests, is math education. It's a challenge to find good information about math video games or any technology as it relates to math education.

Today I viewed an archived webinar from Edweb. Edweb is a professional social networking site for teachers. They recently hosted a webinar with Keith Devlin, a college professor doing research on all types of media and how they can help teach math.

During this webinar, titled Re-Invigorating Math Education with the Next Generation of Mathematics Education Video Games, Devlin discussed how we use math in different ways, and that maybe we should teach it in different ways. I highly recommend this webinar as it provides a good overview of what is available in math video games. Devlin does a good job of describing when the programs can be helpful but also their limitations.

One thing I appreciated hearing from Devlin is that math games like DimensionM are not really games. He made the point that as soon as you see "Commutative Property" pop up on the screen, you know you are no longer in a game. "Games" like this can be a fun, engaging way to review/drill skills. They are an electronic version of flash cards set in a virtual world. You'll see in the video embedded here that students play what looks like the typical video game with pop-ups of multiple-choice math problems. (You may want to skip to about 1:35 of the video.) For me, it felt really disruptive. I had to get rid of the math problem in order to continue on with the game. That's one way of using video games but, in my opinion, it doesn't give the greatest benefit technology, and video games in general, have to offer.

Ko's Journey is math video game that provides a back story and allows students to encounter math within the context of the story. The video embedded here will give you the flavor of Ko's Journey. I would love to get access to the full game. From what I have seen, the storyline would certainly engage me. I'd like to see if the math is presented in a way that seems part of the story, rather than an interruption.

 

I realize this post is getting rather long and I've only reviewed the first 1/3 of the webinar. I highly recommend taking the time to view the full webinar. For those who don't have the chance, I'll make a Part 2 post with at least the other games mentioned.

If you are interested in hearing more of what Keith Devlin has to say about video games and math, you can read an article by Devlin, Learning Math with a Video Game. You may also want to check out his book, Mathematics Education for a New Era: Games as a Medium for Learning.

Keith Devlin is also "The Math Guy" on NPR. At this link you can listen to audio clips of his work for the radio show "Weekend Edition".

Click here to go to Part 2 of this post.

The Kahn Academy Problem

I'm sure you've seen at least one news story on the "success" of Kahn Academy -- over 2,400 videos delivered over 64 million times. With those kind of numbers, the site has to be good, right?

The folks at Mathalicious have written an open letter to Sal Kahn, the man behind Kahn Academy. Mathalicious is a site that provides free math lessons that relate math to real world situations. (One I just looked at today used the dimensions of the iPad and iPod to teach about ratio and proportion. Great stuff!) If anyone should be getting attention from the media in droves, in my opinion, it should be Mathalicious. They are doing the heavy lifting. Instead of just describing a step-by-step, mechanical process for solving math problems, they take the more challenging, and more effective route. They engage students in real-world situations first. Students discover the need for math to solve a curious problem. Having a real need to know the math provides the motivation to learn and remember.

Think about times when you are faced with math problems. Do you find yourself thinking something like, "Oh, yeah! I have to do step 4 of the process Mr. Rosenblath taught me."? Or, are you more likely to think something like, "This is a lot like the garden area problem." Ok, maybe you don't think either. Maybe the math you most often face you can solve in a very robotic way because you've done it a million times before. But if you can think back to when you were first learning math, you might have thought about Mr. Rosenblath's step 4 when you were solving problems with no connection to the real world. And that's ok. But we want students to get beyond that because, honestly, you will never meet a troll who will require you to divide 37,465 by 492 before you can cross a bridge. We want students to be able to apply math skills.

In all of the news stories I've read about Kahn Academy, they make it sound as if the videos at Kahn Academy are the solution to the problem when really, it's just the beginning. Word problems are often taught using a four step process -- Read, Plan, Solve, Look Back. Sal Kahn has provided step three of that process. The numbers of videos viewed on his site is like the number of burgers sold at McDonalds -- 64 million served. Mathalicious, and many great educators, provide the full-meal deal.