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Understanding the relationships between interest in online math games and academic performance
Author(s) -
Zhang M.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of computer assisted learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.583
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2729
pISSN - 0266-4909
DOI - 10.1111/jcal.12077
Subject(s) - mathematics education , reading (process) , population , scale (ratio) , psychology , math education , demography , sociology , geography , political science , law , cartography
Although the I nternet is widely used by students in both formal and informal environments, little is known about how and where youth spend their time online. Using I nternet search and W eb analytics data, this study discovered a large‐scale phenomenon associated with the poor performance of elementary school students in the USA that has been overlooked by educational researchers. This study found that approximately 10 million I nternet users in the USA , many of whom are presumably youth, spend about 89 million hours in a year on a popular math game site that targets children. The number of game site users is equivalent to half of the K ‐5 I nternet population in the USA . However, there is little evidence that the math games on the website meet the criteria for effective instruction as described in the literature. This study found a significant negative correlation between search volumes for the game site in the 50 states in the USA and 4th grade students' performance in mathematics and reading. Moreover, I nternet users in the states with greater numbers of low‐income families and fewer college graduates were more likely to search for the game site. The implications of these findings are discussed.