My Three Favorite Game-Based Platforms to Promote Student Engagement In High School Mathematics Classrooms: Desmos, Blooket, and Quizlet! The use of interactive games in the classroom has continuously proven to increase student engagement and overall motivation in student learning experiences. This has been demonstrated through the incorporation of game-based instructional activities, utilizing technological devices, and by the use of instruments and resources in the classroom that meet students interests while encouraging their participation (Dehne & Munson, 2020). The use of gamified activities for learning experiences effectively allow educators to effectively do so as these games encourage students that are competitive by nature to aim to do their best and earn points in these contests against their classmates (Setiawan, 2022). The approaches mentioned in this blog, Desmos, Blooket, and Quizlet are just a few of the many platforms that allow for educators to implement the strategies of gamified learning. According to Lo & Miller (2020), gamified learning has proved to be effective in enhancing student involvement and motivation in the classroom. While there are several studies that study and demonstrate these findings, there are studies similar to the study of Marklund (2020) where due to a lack of stronger data collection methods, the researchers were unable to find significance in higher or lower test scores for students that were provided with a traditional instructional setting versus a group that received gamified learning classroom setting. This shows that while game-based learning does not always prove to help students to perform higher in their assignments and assessments, there is still evidence that game based learning could provide support in the areas that students lack or need to become engaged with their learning. Gamified learning can be promising in promoting learner engagement in the classroom and is used in methods to overall enhance learning outcomes for students that are present in the classroom by increasing their motivation and participation in the classroom. Desmos is a very useful platform for high school mathematics teachers and students in the following various ways; it provides a fully-equipped online graphing calculator with advanced and basic functions, allows for teachers to create activities that students in a classroom can join to play and interact with their mathematics course content, provides free digital lessons, and allows for students have deeper interactions with their content as they can visualize mathematical information more clearly through the use of Desmos. These various modes are what makes Desmos so useful and versatile for mathematics classrooms. Desmos doubles as it provides both whole-class gamified experiences (Desmos Classroom) and also provides a visual calculator platform (Desmos Studio) for students to visualize their high school mathematical calculations and overall features of the functions that they are studying. When students participate in Desmos' gamified activities, teachers are able to view student progress, what question each student is on, and the amount of time each problem takes the students on their "dashboard" page that only appears on the teacher's screen. This feature motivates students to participate and interact with the content as it breaks away from traditional pen-and-paper practice problems and instead allows for students to answer questions by drawing on graphs, looking at graphics as their questions, and overall allows for students that appreciate technology in the classroom to participate in a way that interests them. In all, Desmos enables students to fully construct their own, individual mathematical understanding of the concepts that they are responsible for learning. Teachers that utilize this tool in their classrooms help themselves and students to represent mathematical ideas clearly, provide meaningful connections for students through visualizations, and overall, allow for teachers and students alike to further build and develop new understandings and ideas in the field of mathematics. Cost: Desmos Classroom and Studio are both free to both students and teachers. User Friendly: The purpose of Desmos is to make learning mathematics easier and more understandable through illustrative technology. It is very user friendly and takes minimal time for students to understand its many functions and use it for their needs. Connectivity: Desmos is available for any operating system that is connected to wifi through searching https://www.desmos.com on a web browser. Laptops, smartphones, computers, and tablets are of the many devices that provide students and teachers with have the ability to access Desmos. Try Desmos today at https://www.desmos.com and ensure that your instruction provides opportunity, encouragement, and the necessary tools needed for students to discover their inner mathematical abilities and deeply understand the content that is being taught to them. Blooket is a versatile platform that educators can utilize for the engagement of students in the classroom as the platform has the students participate in activities that put students in interesting competitions against their peers. Blooket has many features, but mainly stands out as an effective game-based learning strategy that is challenging, interesting, and typically enjoyable for students and teachers combined. The game is colorful, uses sound effects and animations, and places students in competition with their peers to keep students engaged and motivated to solve problems and gain more points than their peers. Blooket is unique because it provides a vast selection of options of the type of game that educators can use. These game-modes can be traditional multiple choice format, true or false, or questions that ask students to match different items. Blooket also allows educators to select the theme of the game, such as "Tower Defense" and "Cryptohack", which can also make learning more interesting for students that are interested in the elected theme as well. In the area of high school Mathematical education, Blooket comes to great use for me as a teacher. I like to use Blooket when students are practicing problems after teaching them the content or for review for an assessment. When I use Blooket, I will create questions based on what I have taught to them and also use the search bar to see if there are any already made games that are embedded with the content. While all students in the classroom are competing through the same game, the platform individually assesses students as they play and provides questions and feedback that allow for each student to learn each at their own pace. Cost: In order to use Blooket, there are three different subscriptions including a free option that allows for users to access the features needed in the everyday classroom, and $2.99 and $4.99 per month options that include more game mode options, allows for more than 60 players to join, and includes more add-ons for generally low costs. User Friendly: This platform is very user-friendly, as Connectivity: Blooket is accessible for students on any operating device connected to internet by connecting through a web browser. In my classroom, I allow students to connect through a laptop, cellphone, or tablet in my classroom. I highly recommend that you try Blooket by typing "https://www.blooket.com" into your web browser and start using it today! There are various options for review of lesson topics and problem-solving games that are specific to the content that is taught in the mathematics classroom. Students are able to enjoy their classroom experience by playing the online game and competing with their peers, while educators are able to see each of their students progress as they play and ensure that the information that they've taught becomes more concrete for each of their students throughout the game. Quizlet is a very useful online platform that can be used for high school mathematics teachers and students as it provides various tools such as flashcards, games, and quizzes where students and educators can make instruction and content understanding more concrete. The various study modes allow for educators and students to choose between their preferred method of studying and also they can change between the modes as they want to challenge themselves more. These options can be interesting for students as they can access basic flashcards containing the material, play interactive matching games, and they can take quizzes on the material where they can select the type of responses they want to do each time; multiple choice, true/false, matching, or short answer. Educators can assign quizzes through Quizlet as well. What makes Quizlet stand out is the ability that both students and teachers have to create the study "set" that they want to practice with. For mathematics teachers, Quizlet is extremely useful as educators can put mathematics problems as the question, and the solution as the answer, and students must follow the correct mathematical procedure to reach those correct solutions Students can also challenge their classmates through interactive games through Quizlet Live, where they compete against each other to win the game. This is a strong feature for motivating students as they interact and engage with the content to improve their scores and to also play the game to win. Quizlet is a very well known and widely used platform that contains all p re-existing public study sets and materials that have been created by other users, so teachers and students can browse through the sets and find ones that match the content that contains the unit lessons that students can study. This feature saves time for educators and allows them to save and reuse what they have created as well. Cost: Quizlet has a free option that is accessible and provides all of the necessary features mentioned above. There is also a paid option with more features $35.99 per year or $7.99 per month that allows for users to change the text formatting, have Quizlet's technology create a set through scanned content. User Friendly: Quizlet is very user friendly as it takes very minimal time for students and teachers to get comfortable using it. There is also a Quizlet app for on-the-go learning. Connectivity: Quizlet is accessible through any wifi-connected operating system through a web browser. Laptops, smartphones, computers, and are of the many devices that provide students and teachers with the ability to access Quizlet. The world of Quizlet is fascinating for educators and students of all subject areas, but specifically for Mathematics educators. Quizlet provides materials for aiding student understanding in challenging concepts unlike ever before. All in one site, we can provide flashcards, game-based instruction, and quizzes that meet the needs of various types of learners in the classroom, on a subject like mathematics where it sometimes is difficult to find new and interactive methods of practice. Type https://quizlet.com into your browser today and try out the interactive and engaging features that it has to offer! Here is an example of an interactive lesson I edited and created using Desmos that employs fun and interesting practice of the Algebra 1 topic of finding slope between two points. Copy and paste into your browser, and enjoy this use of Desmos classroom! https://teacher.desmos.com/activitybuilder/custom/6547c087bd34fc08fccf5753
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