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Incorporating Fun into Education

Everyone from the age of 2 to 102 loves a video game, especially children. In fact, children love video games so much that they rarely realize that they may be learning from them. One area of Texas has come to the realization that the easiest way to teach students is to incorporate the things they love into the education system. Thus, educational-based PDA games have been introduced into the students curriculum. Region 16 Educational Service Center (ESC) in Amarillo, Texas is a true-believer when it comes to putting handheld computers in the hands of its upper-elementary school aged students. On the heels of its recent success with improving student spelling performance with the aid of Leading Step?s Spell Champ! game for Palm OS handhelds, Region 16 has now expanded the program with 1,000 licenses each of Leading Step?s Math Champ!, Size it Up, and Shape Up: Geometry games.

Twelve school districts and 19 campuses currently participate in the program. Approximately 130 teachers have been provided with a set of handheld computers and related software for their classrooms. Teachers may implement any of the software purchased through the grant in their daily lessons to improve student performance. The software is used for group activities or tailored to individuals for specific learning needs. MathChamp! helps students practice their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division tables. Students can have the game select equations randomly, or choose to focus on particular equations. For those ready for more of a challenge, they can have fun with fractions, identifying equivalent fractions, decimals or percents, or practicing adding, subtracting, and multiplying fractions.

In consultation with educators, Leading Step?s programs were created to provide a number of advantages over other computerized learning tools. First, the variety of controls allow teachers to meet a wide range of needs for various students, enabling them to customize the programs for different grade levels, but also to individual student levels, meeting the full range of students in their classes from those still working on basic skills to more advanced pupils. Further, Leading Step?s games help students to learn quickly by immediately informing players of correct or incorrect answers. Instant feedback helps students to adjust incorrect understanding and immediately apply their corrected knowledge to subsequent questions.