The document discusses the digital math game Math Blaster, including its history and components. Math Blaster uses a drill-and-practice approach to teach math concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It has four levels of difficulty and provides visual and auditory feedback. Studies have found Math Blaster can help improve math skills in students, though the game has some design flaws. The document also reviews research on using digital games in classrooms and with special student populations.

1. Using Digital Games in the Classroom: an example of Math Blaster by King Chu and Brittney Huntington

2. Digital Math Games in the Classroom Student Populations Beck and Wade (2004): Drill and practice games Satwicz and Stevens (2008): Quantitative representations and transfer Specific Populations Butler et al. (2001): Children with mild and moderate mental retardation

3. History of Math-blaster

4. Literature on the use of Math-blaster in classrooms Commercially available Criticized in previous video game research Squire (2006): Math-Blaster an Exogenous game Knowledge: discrete facts Learning: memorizing Instruction: drill and practice BUT: Satwicz and Stevens (2008) findings on drill and practice training found in Math-blaster.

5. Math-blaster Game Components Set of drill and practice activities Addition Subtraction

6. Math-Blaster Game Components Multiplication Division

7. Math-Blaster Components 1. Look and Learn : Mayer’s pre-training and modality principle

8. Math-Blaster Components 2) Build Your Skill

9. Math-Blaster Components 3) Challenge Yourself

10. Math-Blaster Components 4) Math-Blaster Segmenting

11. Math-blaster Game Components Problems with Coherence

12. Math-Blaster Components Also problems with Spatial Contiguity

13. Design of Math-Blaster Interfaces Poor data-ink ratio Tufte (1983)

14. Design of Math-Blaster Interfaces

15. Design of Math-Blaster Interfaces

16. Design of Math-Blaster Interfaces Appearance of Bilateral Symmetry Tufte (1983)

17. Design of Math-Blaster Interfaces “ Friendly Graphics” Text Color-blindness Elliot and Norris (1998) Tufte (1983)

18. Math-blaster Design Affordances Controls Individual differences in presence of instructions Rocket Function

19. Math-Blaster Design Conceptual Design Character Development Blaster, GC, and Spot Norman (1990)

20. Math Blaster Design Feedback Visual Feedback Auditory Feedback Norman (1990)

21. Incorporation of Math-blaster in classrooms instruction For Teachers Elliot and Norris (1998) Math Vocabulary individual and group instruction Progress tracking However: Becker (2006)

22. Incorporation of Math-blaster in Classroom Instruction For Students Engaging graphics (Elliot and Norris, 1998) Exposure? Feedback Tracking Progress Socialization

23. References Becker, K. (2006). Classifying learning objectives in commercial games. Authors and Canadian Games Study Association . Butler, F., Miller, S., Lee, K., Pierce, T. (2001). Teaching mathematics to students with mild-to-moderate mental retardation: A review of the literature. Mental Retardation , 39 (1), 20-31. Hummel, J. (1985). Math-Blaster courseware review. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 18, 241-242. Mayer, R. (2005). The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press. New York Times: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/09/15/magazine/1248069030957/games-theory.html. Retrieved 12/14/2010 by Brittney Huntington

24. References Norman, D. (1990). The Design of Everyday Things. Doubleday Business. Satwicz, T., and Stevens, R. (2008). Playing with representations: How do kids make use of quantitative representations in video games? International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning , 13, 179-206. Squire, K. (2006). From content to context: Videogames as designed experience. Educational Researcher , 35 (8), 19-29. Soloway, E., Norris, C. (1998). Using technology to address old problems in new ways. Communications of the AMC , 41, 11-18. Tufte, E. R. (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Graphics Press.