Math team presents paper on ‘game-based learning’ at T4E Conference
The CLIx mathematics team presented a paper at the 8th Technology for Education (T4E) conference held in December 2016. T4E is the annual international conference of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) on advanced learning technologies and pedagogies for technology-enhanced learning. The paper titled ‘Designing a game-based learning environment to foster geometric thinking’, described the design of a game-based learning environment through PoliceQuad, a game developed by the team. It highlighted the results of preliminary investigations that demonstrate the potential of the game to develop geometric reasoning in students.
Suchismita Srinivas, Saurabh Khanna, and Jeenath Rahaman from CLIx presented their paper in collaboration with Prof. Viraj Kumar of PES University, Bengaluru. The authors described the specific challenges of teaching geometry to high school students in India. They argued that a carefully designed game-based learning environment, working in tandem with focused classroom discussions, could address some of the key challenges. These challenges cut across several dimensions—access to resources, a gap between the intended and the implemented curriculum, and pedagogical practices that promote rote rather than reason, are a few important ones.
T4E 2016 was held at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai. The conference provided a forum for bringing together individuals interested in promoting learning and teaching through the use of technology. Students, teachers, and researchers in academia as well as in industry came together to present the results of their research efforts in this emerging inter-disciplinary area. There were three categories of presentations based on the focus areas—Pedagogical strategies and interventions for technology-enhanced learning, Technologies to improve access to education, and development of technologies to support education. The paper presented by the CLIx team belonged to the third category.
[Saurabh Khanna, Research Assistant, Maths Team, CLIx]
