P r o d i g y m a t h
When we first tried Prodigy in class, I liked it more than I thought I would. I had seen students playing it before and wondered about its effectiveness but now I can see it being used a tool in classrooms. It’s fun, you get to explore the world and create a character and pet. Features I think students would love as well, and that would appeal to a wide range of students.
It’s also fairly straightforward, so I think it will be easy for students to figure out and then they can focus more on the math than on trying to figure out the game site.
My concern from before having played the game that I still have a little is that the game and the math don’t have any context around them. The teacher can choose the concepts and questions so it’s not completely random, but it feels out of context and it might be harder for students to grasp because while the concepts are the same, the way the questions are posed is different. However, this might be a benefit, as students are out of their comfort zone trying to solve. Students won’t always have the same teacher, so having different approaches for solving problems could actually be a bonus.
I also do not like that while there is a free option, all the membership benefits are advertised constantly and show students all the cool stuff they could have but don’t. I think that will discourage students a little bit.
gamification
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Personally, from my limited experience, I like the concept of gamification. I think it helps to engage students in a lot of cases – especially through elementary and into middle school, I think educators often forget their students are children and should be allowed and encouraged to play as much as possible. Gamifying math especially can get the buy-in from students who have a negative relationship with math or feel they aren’t good at it. It can also engage the students who may be good at math and the barrier is behavioural instead of academic.
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The negatives can be just that the games (especially video games) pull students in too well and they can have a really hard time transitioning away from the game. It can get the students very riled up as well which isn’t always what you want and can lead to less learning in the classroom. I think it is a nice tool, but shouldn’t be the only tool in your classroom and should be used wisely.
Gamification: educators apply game design elements to an educational setting — –the goal is to make learning more engaging
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