Do you think that educational video games could improve your kid's grades? Do you think that educational video games could teach your kid "non-gaming" skills necessary to accomplish success in life?
There is definitely a movement going on in the direction of implementing educational games in to the classroom. For better or worse, it will be showing up to a classroom near you. I don't need you to get excited yet.
DimensionM is the Math video game of a bigger gambling suite called DimensionU that covers other subjects such as Science and Reading. Below you will a read the summary of the study that DimensionU posts on their web-site.
In this article I will discuss a study completed by the DimensionU Gambling Suite, which is becoming a popular educational video game that schools are beginning to implement in their classrooms. I will then draw a comparison to another "supplemental activity," which is learning a musical device in order to give you a point of view on how to improve your kid's schooling.
Case Study: Pender County Study (UNC Wilmington)
Conducted in 2008, this study looks at the effects of DimensionM in the setting of a rural middle school of roughly 500 students, where only 63.1 percent of students were either at or above grade level on state-mandated End-of-Course testing for math.
Seldom Judge A Book By Its Cover
Mean scores increased from 46% on the pre-test to 63% on the post-test
Female and male students demonstrated equitable gains
Not bad. The results are definitely encouraging, though after reading the in-depth document, (which I downloaded off their web-site), I was not as excited as I was when taking a look at the summary above.
The truth is that out of 500 students in that particular middle school, only 63.1% of the scholars were at or above grade level in their end-of-year exams in Math. However, the gambling study was experimented on only 34 of the 500 students. In the full document, these 34 students were all below-average in Math.
My view is that the summary is misleading. They make it sound like they did the study on 500 students. Look above again. Is not that the way you interpret the first sentence of the study? In actuality, they did the study on 34 students as it states in the full document. Is it me, or is that a large difference? I don't know about you, but I do not like being deceived.
Now, let's look at the first bullet point of the study above. I do not like the use of the word "mean." The word sounds scientific and covers up the actual meaning of the point. In lieu of "mean scores," I would prefer "average scores" in this context. We are not taking a look at any complex information here. It is basically the average pre-test scores of the children before they began the "remediation course" or "gaming course" which I prefer to make use of.
It is also important to point out that the scholars who participated in the study were below-average students with failing grades in Math. So definitely, there would be lots of room for improvement by having an hour of "supplemental" activities every week for 7 weeks as the full document states. The results were that the average pre-test score went from 46% which is clearly a failing grade, to a 63% which is as well as a failing grade, though greatly improved.
So What Else Is Wrong About This Study?
The second bullet point is true and backed up in the document. Both girls and boys improved equally on average.
I have more large query about these games, since they claim to have an instructional part to them. DimensionM has an instructional section where students can go to in order to learn the material necessary to move on to the next level in the adventure. They must master the material to advance forward in the game.
There's still some "unknowns" about this study and educational video games in general. is, (and the full document acknowledges), that they still don't know what the results would be of the games on standardized check scores. A second unanswered query is, How would the skills attained through educational gambling be useful in non-gaming situations? And thirdly, What are the cognitive processes used to employ these games and how can they be or could be applied to create other academic and life skills?
Is This An Assault On Educational Video Games?
I would like to know, if the game asks the exact same query in every level, so that the student can guess and use the process of elimination in order to move to the next level. If that is the case, what are the scholars actually learning? They would be memorizing answers if this is the case. Regrettably, I don't have the answer because there is no information regarding this issue in the full document.
If you have read this far, you may conclude that I am attacking DimensionM and other educational video games.
I am not attacking educational video games in general. I am personally in favor of some supplemental activity to improve check scores. Clearly, scores can improve with the implementation of this game. What I am attacking, is the misleading studies that put this game and others in a more favorable light than they ought to be.
What is the difference between students that take the same exact class with the same teacher and fails and the other gets an A? Is it about the parents and the home surroundings, or something neurological or chemical? Can gambling solve all of these issues?
I would like to know if this game would improve the already above-average students' grades in Math. I would like to know if this game can only improve a failing students grades to barely passable levels, or can it make a lovely student "great." I am thinking about how our students can compete with remainder of the world and not trying to help the below-average ones.
A New Interactive World
The full document also claims that most students are surrounded by 6 hours of interactive media everyday and are evolving in to learning only with interactive media. I have a hard time accepting this. Where is the kid getting 6 hours of media from? At home? Well, the parents need to limit that time, moderate it, and control it ferociously.
I don't know of any geniuses or great minds throughout history that have developed their intellect by playing educational video games. The intelligence of mankind has not "evolved" with the advent of gambling.
An Ancient Interactive Device For Learning
I am speaking about learning a musical device, and learning how to play and read music. If you have prepared my articles about Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo, Albert Einstein and Steven Spielberg, then you know that music has a giant impact on the development of an smart mind.
I get frustrated sometimes when I see the excitement when a brand spanking new expertise emerges that makes life a tiny bit simpler. Though I see the benefits and potential for educational video games, my view is that they already have an activity that they can use not only as an outside-of-the-classroom activity, but that already has the scientific information and limitless brilliant minds that have made use of it to their benefit.
The Journal For Research In Music Schooling In 2007 Found That Simple School Students In Top-Quality Music Programs Scored 22% Higher In English And 20% Higher In Arithmetic Than Their Non-Musical Peers. June 2007; Dr. Christopher Johnson, Jenny Memmott
The American Chemical Society Found That 100% Of Past Winners In The Prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Competition (High School Students) In Science, Math, And Expertise Played Or More Musical Instruments. The Midland Chemist (American Chemical Society) Vol. 42, No.1, Feb. 2005
In A National Document By The College Board Documented That Students Of Music Continue To Outperform Their Non-Arts Peers On The SAT. In 2006, Students Of Music Performance/Music Coursework Scored 57 Points Higher On The Verbal And 43 Points Higher On The Math Parts Of The SAT. The College Board, Profile of College-Bound Seniors National Document for 2006
The Differences Between Learning Music & Educational Video Games
Below are case studies and their summarized results present in nationally recognized research organizations.
Below you will notice lists: that summarizes a quantity of the scientific information found on the affects of studying music, and the other that summarizes the information present in the DimensionM study above.
In the event you read the summaries above, you may be thinking, "well, you gave us the summary of the results like DimensionM did and you didn't go in to the full in-depth document." That is true. And that is why I listed my sources at the finish of each study for you to read yourself. I encourage you to read the studies and see for yourself. However, I don't know of lots of individuals who would refute the cognitive benefits of music schooling. If anything, there's lots of people that are unaware of the benefits.
Students Of All Grades/Abilities Involved In Music Schooling
22% Higher Check Scores in English
20% Higher Check Scores in Math
100% of winners in Science Competitions
Score 57 points higher on Verbal SAT
Score 43 points higher on Math SAT
Below-Average Students Involved With DimensionM Educational Video Games
No Information found for Check Scores in English
17% Higher Check Scores in Math
No Information found for winners in Science Competitions
No Information found for affects on SAT scores
Am I Being Unfair?
I will admit that I was a tiny unfair towards the DimensionM study because I compared several studies of music against study of an educational video game. But, there's other case studies completed by this gambling suite that provide similarly overly-hyped results. And all of the gambling suite studies were completed on only below-average students while the music case studies were completed on students of NOT below-average students, but of all averages high and low.
I would also add that the music case studies were completed by independent organizations that had no product that they were trying to sell. There was no special interest. On the other hand, the gambling studies using DimensionM were completed by the same company trying to market its own product. Definitely, the facts would be sugar-coated. There is no other way to see it.
Parents & Teachers: The Thing You Ought to Take Away From This Article
I would highly recommend that you try to get your kid started in learning a musical device as soon as feasible. The reason is because it takes time to create the cognitive skills that come from learning music that will then translate to lovely grades and academic enthusiasm. The earlier the better.
Clearly, I have fundamentally weakened the merits of DimensionU, of the leading educational video games in the market. If this game or another is available to your kid as a supplemental activity to help raise poor check scores, I would do it. Yes, I said to do it. It cannot hurt as long as it remains "supplemental."
Also, the benefits of learning music are more scientifically conclusive than educational games. I would not get excited or fixated on the idea that video games can improve your kid's check scores in Math. Games have a long way to go before they can compete with music.
Expertise cannot solve all of our issues!
The long term benefits of a music schooling are long to list in this article. In the event you need to learn more, I have written lots of articles about the effects of music schooling on the mind.
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