Monday, December 2, 2013

Mathematical Games... Good or Bad?

Now that technology has become more and more popular, especially with the younger generation, is it smart to incorporate mathematical games on the computer into the curriculum? Children in this day and age are more capable of using an iPad, tablet, laptop, or phone than any other generation before. This brings up the issue of whether schools should start to make the children's use of this technology a active part of learning or suppress it and restore traditional teaching methods.
Since technology is developing at a rate more rapid than ever before, more "Math Games" are popping up for teachers to use. This is where the problem is, what math games are appropriate and are they really beneficial to kids? Online math games did not really come about in my education until I was towards the end of elementary school. I personally found them really fun and useful. These math games made remembering things such as my multiplication and division tables much easier because I could picture the game in my head. Granted at the time I didn't really consider playing these games as a learning experience but now that I look back it truly increased my knowledge of math.
I think that the companies that are developing the textbooks for children, since that’s what education has been based on thus far, should start developing online games. This gives the administration a reliable avenue to take for incorporating technology based educational games into the school’s curriculum. If these companies create these games it will keep the same mathematical information being taught to the children but in more of a modern way.
One thing that I wonder about is what parents think about having more technologically based knowledge being introduced to their children. Do they support this new trend or do they think it’s a bad idea because then children will be spending more time on the internet


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