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Discuss your experience on Prodigy and what the platform has to offer teachers. What are some of the benefits to gamifying a subject like math? What are some of the negatives or pitfalls to be aware of?

Today we were introduced to the online game platform called Prodigy! This platform has so many positives to offer to teachers and students. First, it is a great supplemental tool to review math concepts in a fun and engaging way! Second, it is a great way for visual learners to cement their understanding, and thirdly, it is great for teachers as it is very customizable to grade level, lesson topic, and you can monitor students progress through the different games and levels.

Here is an example of my experience on Prodigy. As you can see here it is very visually engaging, involves reading to understand concepts of the game, but also reads to you and has lots of fun sound effects as you play along! What I also love is that the students can create their own character and their own pet.

This image is an example of one of the math problems I was given. What I really appreciate is that it not only gives students a math problem and blank space for the answer, but it also gives a visual to help students work out the question visually. If a student is stumped, they can click on the lightbulb for a clue of how to answer the question. I think it is great that it does not given them an answer but provides a scaffold to assist them in finding the correct answer.

This last screenshot of my experience with Prodigy, shows how the game includes points/levels. I believe that this will help students to stay engaged, and work hard so they can share their points with classmates and the teacher.

Benefits of Gamifying Lessons

  1. Increases student engagement
  2. Points/levels in games increase student motivation
  3. It also provides instant feedback with correct/incorrect answers
  4. Helps provide a visual for students to understand mathematical concepts
  5. It makes learning more fun!
  6. Great low-prep way to supplement a lesson for teachers

Cons of Gamifying Lessons

  1. Students focus may be more on the game itself than wanting to understand the math concepts.
  2. Students may get frustrated and lose motivation if they continually get answers wrong and a big banner pops up across the screen showing incorrect.
  3. There could be an issue of not having adequate access to technology in schools or at home to use the platform.
  4. Students may also have physical or mental health barriers that prevent them from engaging in online activities (example, a student with Cerebral palsy may not have the dexterity to us a computer).
  5. It is extremely important that the teacher picks a game that makes sense for the students learning outcomes and can explain why they are utilizing it to supplement their lesson. Supplement is key… it is not to replace a lesson!

Overall Thoughts

I am thrilled to have been introduced to many great ways to gamify a classroom in todays class. Overall, I feel for me that Prodigy will be such a useful and engaging tool that I can use to have students get excited about learning math. I love the idea of having it as a math station or allowing students time to play individually on a laptop or iPad. Gamifying a classroom is definitely something I am extremely interested in learning more about. I look forward to learning more at our next Insitu!

Chelsea