Game Review- Brain Pop

Games and school- A concept that has been attempted time and time again, without much positive effect or benefit. Nonetheless, countless attempts continue to spring up in the classrooms, trying to spark engagement in students. With the advances in technology, newer and more advanced techniques are being utilized to implement learning games, but still no really huge game has worked across the board. One game website, however, that comes to mind as being somewhat of the leader of in school implementation, and one that has stood the test of some time, is Brain Pop. When I was in elementary and middle school, I remember using Brain Pop for certain lessons in tech class or other classes, however my reactions were mixed. Even now, Scarlett Middle school where we teach utilizes Brain Pop for some activities. I went back to the site after years away to investigate what I thought of its usefulness as well as engagement.

The site does require a username and password, which need to be purchased, so I was only able to check out one lesson and a couple games. I watched the lesson on blogging, which was a video with an animated narrator and his robot friend. They spoke for about 3 minutes, with some added humor and visuals. It wasn't boring or anything, but obviously for my age level, wasn't especially engaging. I could see it as an alternative to teacher lessons on occasion within the classroom though. My main observation was the game center. I gravitated to the English games, and checked out the Lord of the Flies game. When you access it, you are shown a bird's eye view of the island the boys were stuck on in the novel, with various clickable points to access. Each led to a mini game designed to test knowledge of the story, whether it be character descriptions and quotations, story themes and real-life applications, etc. The mini games each lasted no more than a couple minutes, and I really didn't find myself either too engaged or too unengaged. I finished all of the games so that is a good sign I guess too. After finishing the games, I called it a day and closed down Brain Pop.

Reflecting on the experience using Brain Pop, I tried to base my feedback on my expectations going in. I didn't expect a game site that would cause me to be engulfed in the excitement, devoting hours on end to the task. I expected some entertainment while also causing some critical thinking and cognitive processes. I didn't expect top of the line graphics, but I expected an interface that didn't feel old or obsolete. After playing Brain Pop, I did receive some entertainment and didn't feel really bored at any time, however I did feel that it wasn't too challenging or causing of too much thought. I imagine that in a classroom, many students would just click around till they got the right answers/completed the tasks, rather than really get motivated to complete the challenge at a high level. The overall interface also felt a little dated, seemingly behind much of the technology and websites that students use today. However, the content on the site was of good quality for educational purposes in terms of a change up from the normal lesson. The age group that I feel it probably best suits is middle school rather than high school. In the end, I still don't feel too confident about the use of games for learning purposes, although they've come a long way.