By Gabby Sahm

Staff Writer

@gabbysahm
If you were to walk down the halls of Coppell High School, you would see just about every student on their phones or iPad. Whether they are using it to text, play games or even study, there is no excusing the fact that we are in a technology driven world.

Recently, many apps and video games have been coming out that, in some cases, can help students learn using the technology of this day and age. Now, with this statement comes the argument: do video games and apps hender students ability to learn?

Apps like 2048 and, more recently, Trivia Crack have swept through the halls of CHS like wildfire. Both apps have educational undertones, but overall are apps that allow students to challenge friends.

The premise of the 2048 game is to add multiple tiles together until you can combine them and make 2048. It can take some time for students to achieve the goal of 2048, maybe even days or weeks.

Trivia Crack is a little different. You play the game against one other person, and you answer questions based on which category you get when you spin the wheel. There is six categories including sports, entertainment, art, history, geography and science. You keep playing the game until one person wins all six characters or the game has gone for 25 rounds.

Junior Sabrine Alsalih plays video games daily. She is a connoisseur in the gaming world and spends about 10 hours a week playing anything from Minecraft to Counter Strike. She did participate in playing 2048 and now Trivia Crack. She enjoys the apps and thinks they could benefit students.

“I do think they help students because 2048 can be a brain exercise,” Alsalih said. “Trivia Crack can also gives students cool facts they can remember for classes.”

Both apps make students think whether they are adding numbers together, or thinking through what they learned in history so they can win the character to win. The apps have the ability to help students to increase their skill level and gain more knowledge.

Junior Nino Teruya has spent time playing both games as well. He agrees they can be distracting, but if students have free time, it is a good way to keep the brain stimulated.

“If the students have finished their work and have free time, the apps are good ways to spend time and still exercise your brain,” Teruya said. “Fellow students in my class have said they have learned things from Trivia Crack that they have not even learned in school”

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) coordinator Mike Yakubovsky has come across students playing both games and has even participated in them himself. He says Trivia Crack is a nice way for students to learn facts and figures, while 2048 involves students to manipulate things and problem solve, until you come out with the right solution.

He thinks the introductions of apps and technology, like the iPad, have not been a distraction but have helped students better manage technology for the future.

“Students are always going to be distracted whether its on electronic devices or simple doodles in their notebook,” Yakubovsky said. “The iPads have helped introduce students to technology and how to manage it before they go off into the real world.”