Mathletics.co.nz

While visiting my young cousin this weekend, I came across an example of the term ‘edutainment’ we discussed in last weeks lecture. He (Leon) was playing a computer game called ‘Mathletics’ where you complete a series of math questions to get to the next level. He started off by creating his own avatar where he could choose his hair, skin, eye colour etc and his own clothing, he spent about ten minutes doing this, and then progressed on to answering the math questions. As soon as he started this he became completely immersed in the game and would not take his eyes off the screen (or answer mine or anyone else’s questions). I was talking to his mum about his love of the game and she was saying he begs her to let him play it almost constantly. The game has cute, bright images that are very appealing to children and challenges that start off easily attainable and progressively get harder depending on the level. After reading about Mathletics on their website I found out that the game is individualised and goes at the same pace as the child, for example if they are finding a particular sum hard they can continue on similar ones until they master it. The mathletics website also states that children can challenge each other in real time games with other children all over the world, adding an interactive component to the game and also emails weekly reports of the children’s progress to their parents. The website also contains comments from parents saying how much their children’s math skills have improved since they started using the educational game. This game is a prime example of edutainment in the sense that children can become so immersed in it that they do not feel as if they are doing math, and at the same time are increasing their math skills and learning computer skills. The sense of achievement seen while watching my cousin play, emphasised the enjoyment children experience while playing this game and show that learning can be fun (especially when they do not realise it is educational).