“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?”
Prodigy is a platform that allows students to practice both math and English while playing a video game. The game is rather enjoyable though there is definitely some features that may make the game difficult. Part of the difficulties of the game is having the options for additional payment which is not something we really want in an education setting. Another challenge could be the requirements for computers and having to be sure that everyone has access to a computer which may be a challenge in some areas if there are not enough computers for a class all at once. Another issue which I did not think of until a classmate mentioned it is that some people do not enjoy story style video games which is exactly what this game is. Though many good things for teachers can be that teachers can allow students to work at their own pace in math along with teachers possibly having a bit of time to prepare the next lesson for the day. Prodigy also allows students’ to possibly be learning in an alternative way which could be self lead.
The benefits of gamifying subjects which tend to be less enjoyable to students is that students will enjoy learning more which can lead to them actually learning more. Students want to learn especially when they are enjoying something and since subjects like math are subjects that usually students may not be very interested in, having them play games can get them more involved and even asking more questions about the topic if they are wanting to learn more about it, even if just to answer a question correctly to continue on in a game.
Some of the downsides to gamifying something like math can be that students are already on devices so much at home usually that at school it is good to maximize the amount of time that they are not on devices. Other downsides can be that since Prodigy gives out multiple choice problems in the math version that students may not actually be learning the material but may just be learning to guess and hope for the best.
Some issues I have with the program Prodigy are for me one of the large issues was once you completed a battle the button at the bottom which was also the largest button was a button to do more payment to get more rewards. This button can be a difficult issue since it is promoting transactions within the game which is something that is an issue in games especially those marketed at children. I do enjoy how wizard names are pre-set names that you string together to avoid students’ actual names ending up in the game since that could be a privacy issue along with a FIPPA issue within schools. Another issue is the limitations to the character models since it allows customization but not nearly enough for students to fully feel represented by the character, There are limited hair options and also glasses are the only real customization option, there are no options for other equipment like hearing aids or other accommodations or differences in students which may leave students feeling different especially if they have peers who can mostly match their models.