Devlin proposes that we utilize video games to do so, which I believe is a great step. However, I wonder…in what way can we utilize technology (in the broader sense) to create a new way of representing math? Symbols seem to be a way that we’ve optimized the representation of math for paper. What new medium in the future will be utilized?

The paper mentioned that using cool-math games may actually increase the achievement gap. This seems like a dire negative effect of a seemingly helpful at best and innocuous at worst website. However, children may go on this website, play games and mentally attribute the time they spend on it as time spent doing math. However, if/when they see no improvement in there math, they may feel that they are naturally uninclined towards math and the fact that there are no results for all there work may be demotivating.

I played a few games on cool-math games after reading the paper and if they do improve math skills they do it in a HIGHLY indirect way. One game that I played involved making a character move through an easily navigable maze and collect stars. Absolutely no math skills and even problem solving skills. The idea of a child spending hours on something like this under the illusion that he/she is developing math skills makes me sad.

Such websites mislead people and take advantage of their vulnerability and really should be held accountable for the false claims they make.

I found Devlin’s video-game representation of math extremely interesting from an accessibility perspective. Previously, I never considered the problem of accessibility from an interest perspective. Could this same model make other subjects (STEM or even reading) more accessible to populations who are not largely represented?

Since these interventions are so easy to do but usually ignored, how can technologies play a role transforming them into habit? I am thinking of using text messages daily or weekly to give parents guidance on what to do. It’d be helpful for the content of the messages to be determined by the location parents are in.

I have mixed feelings about Neopets. The site is obviously exploiting the users data, but they are also providing the kids and adolescents with important skills (eg. financial education). Although I am not sure of all the intentions of Neopets, I think it is important that educational organizations can find ways to make profits. Unfortunately, money is required to run any organization and if organizations can find ways to get additional resources, they will be motivated to continue to improve their services. They can also attract competition, which can improve the products and services offered to the children.

Wuzzit provides a good contrast to coolmath-games.com, which I actually researched for my technology redesign project. A lot of the points made in Understanding the Relationships Between Interest In Online Math Games and Academic Performance by Berkowitz et al about the credibility of math content in CoolMath’s games came up in my analysis as well. The website has a few math related games, but a lot more games just geared towards entertainment that do not provide learners with the opportunity to “process mathematical content actively” (Zhang 255). Thus, I feel that the website does not capitalize on the affordances of technology to provide meaningful learning experiences for its users. From an equity standpoint, and especially because this website has a lot of traffic from minority/lower socioeconomic background students, should standards or regulations exist for products that claim to be educational?

Parents and teachers should be able to distinguish between good games and ineffective ones, as well as how to properly integrate such games as a part of their students’ academic diet. It is not enough for some ed-tech designers to know good practices for educational games. If those quality games are indistinguishable in the app store from lower-quality games, this barely helps the student population writ large. Perhaps there could be some sort of certification board, like the ESRB or MPAA, that could review and certify research-backed educational games?

I downloaded the YouTube Kids app and searched for “Cool Math Games.” Unsurprisingly, most of the content that came back were videos of kids playing the games on the Cool Math Games website. This peculiar “watching” phenomenon is so huge, I can’t help but wonder if there’s some way to leverage watching videos of gameplay into a learning experience.

Based on the data from Zhang’s research, the kids that are searching for this content are among the lowest performing. Is there a way to connect them with the help they need? Perhaps a new study (based on the data that YouTube has on its users) could link those interested in coolmath-games with a program to encourage families working together on math problems at home, the very beneficial practice discussed in the Berkowitz et al. article, and could compare the achievement of those with and without this intervention.

The Peg + Cat app brings to bear the impact potential of parasocial factors in promoting user engagement and advancing learning outcomes. I was drawn to the Peg + Cat app after having seen one of the episodes with my nieces; I felt a sense of familiarity with the characters due to that previous interaction (Hirsh, 2015). This familiarity was similar to the feeling my peers and I experienced in class when reading with the Buzz Lightyear e-book; because we recognized the characters and their stories, we perceived ourselves to have a deeper interaction with them even if they could not respond to us (Hirsh, 2015, p. 19). I was interested in what the Peg + Cat characters had to say to me through the app because I felt I was building off of a previous interaction. I developed an affinity for Peg and her posse, so when Peg asked me to help her count all of her friends to make sure no one was left behind, I truly was interested in helping. In this way, I experienced firsthand the engagement benefits of parasocial relationships, which I can only imagine to be amplified for users between the ages of three and six. My engagement was further exacerbated through the singing and cheering of the characters. These acts became extrinsic motivators for me to continue to play the game, perform well, and remain on task (Hirsh, 2015). Due to all of these factors, I would expect the Peg + Cat app to do an effective job of teaching kids counting skills (Hirsh, 2015; Richert et. al, 2011, p. 89). Ultimately, the Peg + Cat app’s use of parasocial relationships to engage young learners provides an effective means of working toward the learning outcome of learning to count.

Despite the advantages of utilizing parasocial factors to advance learning, the Peg + Cat app does not use its interactive potential to the best effect. The “Giant Hide and Seek” game, in particular, sheds light on the limitations of the app via its poor visual design. The game involves hiding some of the characters in inanimate objects to prevent them from being found by the adults, thereby teaching users to match characters to open slots. In the screen capture of the game below, you can see how users are expected to drag each of the five characters one by one into the available slots in a frame or a bowl. Particularly among users closer to three years old that are just beginning to grasp the symbolic representation of objects on the screen, the mere outline of a frame and a bowl may not translate to the actual objects those shapes are intended to represent (Richert et. al, 2011). A more effective design might use images of the actual objects with a more creative interface that portrays what would happen in real life. Specifically, users would see an actual bowl and drag characters into the bowl rather than placing the characters on top of its outline. In this way, the learner would find meaning in the game that goes beyond the confines of the app (Hirsh, 2015). Implementing these minor though significant design improvements has the potential to augment the learning experience for users, especially those on the older side of the age range for whom this game might prove too easy to be engaging.

Overall, the Peg + Cat app is a worthwhile tool for teaching some of the basics of counting and math. While it takes advantage of parasocial factors to draw users, it could take advantage of simple improvements to escalate learning outcomes for users.

References

Hirsh-Pasek, K., Zosh, J.M, Golinkoff, R.M., Gray, J.H., Robb, M.B., & Kaufman, J. (2015). Putting Education in “Educational” Apps: Lessons From the Science of Learning. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 16, 3-34.

Richert, R.A., Robb, M.B., & Smith, E.I. (2011). Media as social partners: The social nature of young children’s learning from screen media. Child Development, 82-95.