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.