Today’s students have grown up immersed in a world of technology. Whether it's the Internet, instant messaging, text messaging, or even playing videogames, this is how students today communicate, entertain themselves and yes, even learn. But what they are learning from this array of technology is often far removed from the curriculum of school.

With this phenomenon comes a critical challenge for educators nationwide. Consider this: 77 percent of students play electronic games - and the enthusiasm for games appears to cross all borders of income, gender and cultural backgrounds. On the other hand, more than 70 percent of teachers never play games outside schools.

So how do educators capture student’s interest and teach them in a way that's relevant to them in today's technology rich world? Just ask Dr. Katherine C. Clark, principal at Ocoee Middle School in Ocoee, Florida.

Strategy

As a "State Demonstration School," OMS was designed with the future in mind -- offering instructional programs which foster the application of academic knowledge to real life experiences. The curriculum program is single-minded in its attempt to connect students with the world and each other through technology; it requires that students will work in groups and take individual initiative; they will learn at school and home; and they will experience the 'wow" and "aha" of hands-on discovery using the latest technologies.

"Everything we do at OMS must be student-centric," said Dr. Clark. It has to transform the learning environment and keep that spark of excitement palpable -- especially in classrooms where more difficult subjects are being taught. Ultimately it has to engage students in their own learning."

With her eye on promoting academic excellence and lifelong learning skills to the OMS students, Dr. Clark accepted the opportunity to pilot Tabula Digita's new immersive DimensionM video math games.

The highly interactive video game world of DimensionM includes Dimenxian Algebra, Evolver Single Player for Pre-Algebra, and Evolver Multiplayer for Pre-Algebra and Algebra. With key objectives covered through a series of rapid fire, action adventure missions, the educational video games contain three dimensional graphics, sound, animation and storylines comparable to those in popular video games.

“The idea of using gaming to learn is long overdue in the education setting. That's why we jumped at the chance to incorporate the DimensionM games to support our math curriculum. It speaks to our students in their language - captivating them digitally - and inspiring them to learn."

Teacher Benefits

After a short training program, the math teachers immediately began playing the game themselves.  They had a blast," said Dr. Clark. "Several teachers commented that they would have loved playing games like this when they were learning math concepts in middle school," said Dr. Clark.

Teachers gravitated to the versatility of the supplemental curriculum solution. It was so easy to integrate the program into any of the existing instructional models - computer labs, classrooms, extended day programs, homework, or even special events. And of course the products cover a comprehensive list of objectives aligned to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards and select state standards. Further, it provides automatic progress tracking for each student so teachers can provide additional instruction to help students gain mastery of specific concepts.

Student Benefits

With the teachers "loving it," it was time to introduce the students to a virtual world bursting with action and education.

"The power of the adventure video game became evident - students forgot they were learning about coordinating system and scatter plats, order of operations, proportions or even adding and subtracting integers, but they didn't forget what they learned;" said Dr. Clark. They were becoming incredible problem-solvers."

Over the next several months, students were known to stand in line waiting for a turn to play the game when their classroom work was completed. 

The game had the desired affect we were planning on - getting students to spend more time exploring these complex math concepts before, during and after class time," said Dr. Clark. We really noticed the collaborative affect of the games, too."

One teacher told of a sixth grade student who said he was trying to get older students to help him understand math concepts so that he could do well in the game.

The social skills, team problem-solving, motivation to improve math skills were huge benefits to our student population," said Dr. Clark.

Results

This spring, when the students were working on linear equations, the teachers at OMS introduced Evolver Multiplayer.

In this version, students compete against fellow students in the same classroom, same building, same district, or even from across the country. In a test of speed and diverse math skills, students face numerous obstacles throughout the different course levels of the game. Just like other video games, each level of Evolver Multiplayer incorporates key algebraic concepts designed to challenge students' advancement as they try to complete all five stages of the course faster than their fellow students.
The use of the Evolver Multiplayer game coincided with Tabula Digita's plan to organize and host the first annual multiplayer educational games (MEG] tournament using students from its pilot program schools. Semi-final tournaments were held at schools, districts, and learning centers across the nation.

Our students liked the competition, yet being in middle school - everything must be fair," said Dr. Clark. We worked hard to organize the tournament much like the NCAA "March Madness" basketball tourna¬ment with formal rules, brackets, everything."

The teachers at OMS will see first-hand the culmination of their efforts when later this month, the 13 finalists, winners of the individual semi-final tournaments, will receive a trip to the National Education Computing Conference (NECC] in Atlanta for himself and a parent/guardian. Once in Atlanta, the finalists will be competing for prizes such as an Apple® MacBook® notebook computer and video iPods®.

"This has been an extremely successful pilot program," said Dr. Clark. "Our plan for this year was just to have fun with the games. Next year we will elevate our use to see increases in test scores.
 

From Tabula Digita