Using Digital Games in the Classroom: an example of Math Blaster
by King Chu and Brittney Huntington
Digital Math Games in the Classroom• Student Populations
– Beck and Wade (2004): Drill and practice games
– Satwicz and Stevens (2008): Quantitative representations and transfer
• Specific Populations– Butler et al. (2001): Children with
mild and moderate mental retardation
History of Math-blaster
Literature on the use of Math-blaster in classrooms
• Commercially available• Criticized in previous video game research• Squire (2006): Math-Blaster an Exogenous game– Knowledge: discrete facts– Learning: memorizing– Instruction: drill and practice
BUT: Satwicz and Stevens (2008) findings on drill and practice training found in Math-blaster.
Math-blaster Game Components
• Set of drill and practice activities– Addition– Subtraction
Math-Blaster Game Components
• Multiplication• Division
Math-Blaster Components
• 1. Look and Learn: – Mayer’s pre-training
and modality principle
Math-Blaster Components
2) Build Your Skill
Math-Blaster Components
• 3) Challenge Yourself
Math-Blaster Components
• 4) Math-Blaster• Segmenting
Math-blaster Game Components
• Problems with– Coherence
Math-Blaster Components
• Also problems with Spatial Contiguity
Design of Math-Blaster Interfaces
Poor data-ink ratioTufte (1983)
Design of Math-Blaster Interfaces
Design of Math-Blaster Interfaces
Design of Math-Blaster Interfaces
Appearance of Bilateral Symmetry
Tufte (1983)
Design of Math-Blaster Interfaces“Friendly
Graphics”
– Text– Color-blindness– Elliot and Norris (1998)
Tufte (1983)
Math-blaster Design• Affordances
– Controls• Individual differences in
presence of instructions
– Rocket Function
Math-Blaster Design
• Conceptual Design– Character
Development • Blaster, GC, and Spot
Norman (1990)
Math Blaster Design
• Feedback– Visual
Feedback– Auditory
Feedback
Norman (1990)
Incorporation of Math-blaster in classrooms instruction
For Teachers• Elliot and Norris (1998)
• Math Vocabulary
• individual and group instruction
• Progress tracking– However: Becker (2006)
Incorporation of Math-blaster in Classroom Instruction
For Students• Engaging graphics (Elliot and
Norris, 1998)– Exposure?
• FeedbackTracking Progress
• Socialization
References• Becker, K. (2006). Classifying learning objectives in commercial games.
Authors and Canadian Games Study Association. • Butler, F., Miller, S., Lee, K., Pierce, T. (2001). Teaching mathematics to
students with mild-to-moderate mental retardation: A review of the literature. Mental Retardation, 39 (1), 20-31.
• Hummel, J. (1985). Math-Blaster courseware review. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 18, 241-242.
• Mayer, R. (2005). The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press.
• New York Times: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/09/15/magazine/1248069030957/games-theory.html. Retrieved 12/14/2010 by Brittney Huntington
References• Norman, D. (1990). The Design of Everyday Things. Doubleday Business. • Satwicz, T., and Stevens, R. (2008). Playing with representations: How do
kids make use of quantitative representations in video games? International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning, 13, 179-206.
• Squire, K. (2006). From content to context: Videogames as designed experience. Educational Researcher, 35 (8), 19-29.
• Soloway, E., Norris, C. (1998). Using technology to address old problems in new ways. Communications of the AMC, 41, 11-18.
• Tufte, E. R. (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Graphics Press.