Educational software developer Tabula Digita will deliver supplemental pre-algebra and algebra concepts to students attending 24 middle schools in Broward County, Florida, through the studio's DimensionM video games.

Broward County, which claims the nation’s sixth largest public school system, joins several other counties in Florida that have adopted video games as a learning tool, such as Orange, Seminole, Palm Beach, Volusia, and Pinellas.

The DimensionM product series offers several titles incorporating key algebraic concepts in both single and multiplayer formats. The games are aligned to meet the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics's standards, as well as several state standards, for grades 6-9.

The supplemental curriculum offers lessons that cover topics such as proportions, number lines, and adding and subtracting integers to linear equations. The software also provides automatic progress tracking for each student, enabling teachers to analyze results and provide additional instructions based on those results.

Broward County's public schools conducted an internal review of Tabula Digita's math games, which included product demonstrations and testings, before deciding to incorporate the software into its curriculum.

Says Broward County director of Instructional Technology Jeanine Gendron: "Students naturally like to learn through games, and the three-dimensional, virtual world format is deeply engaging. It’s a high impact, motivating learning tool that greatly assists when teaching a complex subject like algebra."

She continued, "That subject is especially challenging during the middle school years, and quite often children become turned off because they view it as difficult. But from observing students using this program, we know that Tabula Digita is going to have a profound positive effect on the attention of our middle school learners."

By Eric Caoili
September 10, 2008 12:37:00 PM PT