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 This week I'll start what I'm sure will be a recurrent topic for "Geek for the Week:" Gaming in Education. Many educators have been integrating games (digital and otherwise) into instruction for quite some time. I direct you to Mark Prensky (start with his book, "Don't Bother Me Mom --- I'm Learning," as well anything written by James Paul Gee to get your feet wet if you're new to the ideas of the education benefits for gaming in the classroom.
I'll dedicate this week's article to reviewing a site that I've used at the elementary level that not only got students excited about math, but convinced their teachers that games do in fact have a place in the classroom. It's called Arcademic Skill Builders, and it is stocked with plenty of free games that include math and word skill builders at the elementary level. Based on "arcade-style" games, these tools follow the gaming philosophy that fluency can be achieved with games because: 1) "students respond to challenge," 2) "repetitious drill can be fun" and 3) "immediate feedback facilitates improvement in performance." Anyone who's witnessed a child playing a video game has seen the intense focus and commitment to breaking through to the next level or beating a previous score. Aligning the joy of gaming with something tedious like practicing math facts clearly helps transform the experience and invites students to learn in an environment they are not only comfortable with but would seek out given the choice. Don't believe me? After introducing my first grade students to the Jet Ski Addition game at Arcademic, many recounted how they continued using the site for up to 2 hours on a Saturday to continue playing the game. What does that mean? That means that on a Saturday, first graders practiced their addition facts for 2 hours at home without anyone making them do it. In all my years of teaching, I've never heard of such a thing!
Though there are plenty of games to check out on Arcademic, I'm going to highlight four of their newest: Grand Prix Multiplication, Drag Race Division, Jet Ski Addition, and Island Chase Subtraction. What makes these games more exciting and engaging than the other offerings at Arcademic is that they are multi-player games --- students play real, live people rather than just the computer. Students are able to host or join games in a completely safe way and race against other students in real time. This alone got my students revved-up as there is a huge difference between racing a computer and racing another student, but things really got exciting when I taught them how to host their own games in order to invite their friends (that were in the same room with them) into a private contest. In a lab situation, this was easily achieved by having students use their computer number as their user name and then hosting a "private" game by locking it with a shared password. This can easily be achieved in a classroom with several computers, or (as my students did independently) students can call each other up ---from the comfort of their own homes--- and meet each other at the site.
In terms of safety, there's no way for the players to communicate with each other and as long as students don't identify themselves in the user names they choose, players are completely anonymous. I suppose there's always the risk of someone using an "inappropriate" user name, that would then be listed in the games available to join, but I haven't seen that happen.
One thing that sparked great discussion in all the classes was when I had them enter either the division or the subtraction versions of the multiplayer games. Throughout the classes I heard students bemoan the fact that they weren't as strong in those areas as they were in the addition or multiplication. What was interesting was that when they entered the division and subtraction sections, there were hardly any games to join, meaning that students elsewhere in the world were also avoiding these areas. This helped my students feel a bit better. I asked students to tell me how they could get better at subtraction or division.
"Play the games!" they told me.  Bob Sprankle has been a multi-age teacher in Wells, ME for 10 years and has served as the school's Technology Integrator for the past two years.
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