Video games for learning

Hello teacher launched a homework help project on December 8 in collaboration with the Commission scolaire de Montréal. At the heart of the project, the installation of interactive terminals in various places frequented by children, including certain daycare services.

The project follows a pilot carried out for five years and the impacts of which have been assessed by a UQAM research team. It appears that the use of Allô prof services in the context of the daycare service accentuates students' competence in using ICT and increases their autonomy in carrying out homework and solving difficulties. New for this year, the interactive terminal is called upon to play a major role in another factor favorable to perseverance in school: the motivation of young people to complete their school work well.

Indeed, research recently carried out at UQAM once again demonstrates the positive repercussions that educational video games can have on children's motivation. This support, attractive, familiar and positively connoted in the minds of young people, arouses the emergence of an intrinsic motivation in the learning process. The child is challenged by elements of challenge, fantasy and curiosity. He develops the use of the method of trial and error, without however feeling the weariness that this approach can have when practiced in a conventional way. Traditionally associated with simple entertainment, video games may soon prove to be an ally of education.

The interactive terminal and educational video games developed by Allô prof draw heavily on the motivational potential of new technologies. Allô prof intends to continue in this direction by targeting key concepts of learning, such as mathematical operations, which are very well served with the game Fin Lapin put online at the beginning of the current school year.

About Allô prof:

Allô prof is a charitable organization supporting school perseverance whose mission is to provide free homework help to all Quebec students and their parents. To support its mission, Allô prof provides them with a telephone service and online services involving a team of qualified teachers and a virtual community made up of student helpers, parents and education stakeholders. Since its founding in 1996, Allô prof has responded to more than a million requests from Quebec elementary and secondary students. The development of homework assistance services has been achieved thanks to the support of several loyal partners: the Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sport, the GRICS company, Rio Tinto Alcan, the Universitas Funds and Télé-Québec.

Through Marc-Antoine Tanguay
Director of Communications and Marketing