Week 7 Reading

As a student who loved math growing up, but gradually lost interest over time, I often wonder what changed. I found Keith Devlin’s talk on “Using Video Games to Break the Symbol Barrier” very interesting.  Devlin argues that one explanation might be found in the way math is represented, particularly in its symbolic form. He proposes that an iPad interface can create opportunities to make a more efficient representation of mathematical symbols, in the form of a video game.

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?