

How To Make Any 3rd Grader Love Math - chuckie
http://mobilelearningblog.com/2010/10/14/how-to-make-any-3rd-grader-love-math/

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cabacon
Ugh! This sounds exactly like pseudo-context as described by Dan Meyer
(<http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=8002>). There are so many awesome things to
inspire someone in math, and slapping a popular movie character on rote drills
seems like a misguided approach to motivating the challenge. I mean, on the
one hand, good for you if you can find some trappings to make doing drills
more fun. But while you're getting them to exercise skills, you're really
missing out on the deep and fulfilling motivations that exist for math!

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patrickyeon
That's what I thought of immediately as well, but I'm not sure it's even
pseudo-context. Pseudo-context would be "if Hermione cast 5 spells yesterday,
and two today, how many in total did she cast?" This is just math drills
(another 'technique' that has its supporters and opponents) with a coat of
shiny paint, hoping that the paint is pretty enough that a kid will pay
attention to it in spite of the math.

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asolove
I think this approach is self-defeating. You could use it to teach your
daughter (or son) to take math quizzes well, but you will never use it to
inspire them to appreciate the beauty of math.

In my experience, most of these "make-learning-fun" tools are really about
making learning independent enough that parents don't have to participate.

If you want any third grader to love math, have her mom and dad cajole and
joke and help and love her while she is learning it.

I learned my multiplication tables because my father would teach me bits of
algebra, but only after I could get the flash cards right. He wasn't
distracting me, he was rooting for me, showing me the underlying beauty of
math, while also demanding I get the basic memorization right.

~~~
dtran
I don't think he spent time making a custom iPad app for his daughter so he
could make learning independent enough to not participate. He was merely
trying to apply one of his strengths (programming), his background (a startup
designing educational games), and background knowledge (knowing his daughter
loved Harry Potter) to try to create a better learning experience for his
daughter, which is something I think every good educator, whether it's a
teacher, parent, or peer, should do. You have to teach people to your
strengths and their strengths - if he was an author and chose to teach math to
his daughter in the context of elaborate stories and fairy tales, would you
call that self-defeating as well?

This reminded me of Randy Pausch's last lecture (if you haven't had a chance
to watch it, I highly recommend it -
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo>). Teaching kids is all about
headfakes* - you are't encouraging them to play soccer so they can go and play
in the World Cup, but rather so they have a fun context to learn about things
like hard work, practice, and teamwork. Analogously, I think this personalized
Harry Potter app just teaches his daughter that learning doesn't always have
to feel like work, not specifically that she should spend all day trying to
get praises from Hermoine and British men answering math problems.

* Disclaimer: I don't have kids and know little to nothing about raising or educating kids.

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pbhjpbhj
>you are't encouraging them to play soccer so they can go and play in the
World Cup, but rather so they have a fun context to learn about things like
hard work, practice, and teamwork

I'm sure many people (parents|teachers|other educators)see things like sports
in this way. Personally I'm teaching my kids football because I enjoy kicking
a football around and playing the game - it's not a direct proxy for learning
something else, that is not the motivation.

The reason I'm teaching my eldest about maths is because I find it
interesting, stimulating and often fun; not because I see it as a gateway to
being an accountant or whatever.

Having said that I see nothing novel educationally in the article except the
very specific combination of movie franchise + ipad + maths. Remember Britney
Spears being used to teach physics a few years ago?

Slightly OT: I don't think his reasons as stated indemnify him from a
successful claim of copyright infringement. He chose the specific franchise as
a promotional tool both for his blog and for, it seems, KnowPro Apps. This was
apparently a decision rooted in the profitable promotion of business entities.
The fact that the app he mention itself was created for sole personal use is
immaterial. If there is a KnowPro paid for this app in any way then I'd expect
a successful suit could follow. IANA&copy;L

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mcyger
Thanks for your feedback.

I think the novelty comes in exactly what you state, and I think that the
educational system relies too heavily on the status quo. There would be
nothing wrong with a classroom posting pictures of Harry Potter and couching a
lesson in the Harry Potter clothes in order to drive more student involvement.
It's no different than when Jeopardy was popular 10 years ago and Jeopardy-
like student challenges spread across schools.

With respect to the copyright infringement aspect, I hope that is not the
case. I believe that many people are visual learners and seeing an example can
have a much more powerful result than a mere description. It was with that
intention that I posted the video. I do not plan to distribute the app as that
would clearly be in copyright violation.

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cwbrandsma
So I actually did spend some time to create IPad apps for my kids to help them
learn math (Beginning Math and Times Table Helper -- for sale on the app store
now :).

Couple of things I don't like here: 1\. First thing I see is time math
quizzes. Timed math tests are flat out evil. I'm thinking of the 60 problems
in 60 seconds variety I had as a 3rd graders (and failed). Don't do this to
your kids. Let them go at their own pace.

2\. That is a lot of distractions. If you have ever dealt with dyslexic kids
(prone to mentally wander off -- and I am dyslexic as well), this is not
helpful.

Not all electronic learning software needs to be game oriented.

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noonespecial
Harry Potter aside, any child whose parents are this involved will be a
smashing success.

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kellishaver
Leap Frog is already one step ahead of him with that one:
<http://www.leapfrog.com/gaming/didj/>

You can plug it in to the computer and personalize the learning content, i.e.
enter your kid's spelling words for that week, or a specific set of math
problems, etc. Doing good in the games unlocks points they can redeem to earn
custom game backgrounds, characters, and so on. There are a handful of games
for the system, Spongebob, LEGO, Star Wars, maybe even a Harry Potter.

It's kind of a neat system (but a bit buggy). I don't think it works
particularly well for teaching, but for doing drills on the stuff that just
has to be memorized, like basic math facts and spelling, I think it serves its
purpose.

What made my 3rd grader love math (it's her favorite subject) was
understanding the hows and whys behind it and seeing some practical
application of it. The more complicated it is, the more she likes it, and so
she memorized the basic facts in order to get to the good bits. I'm not
entirely convinced, though, that this is typical 8yr old behavior.

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stelfer
In general I don't like this approach to learning. I feel like it's counter to
the rule that you shouldn't reward kids for things they should be expected to
do.

That being said, he says clearly that this is about learning math facts. The
are the one rote part left in the early math curriculum. It's going to be
painful for most kids. I know this from very recent experience. Anything you
can do to help I think is advantageous.

He should not have titled his post as he did. It should have been titled "How
to get any 3rd grader to learn their math facts more efficiently". I think
that's what he meant to say anyway.

~~~
mcyger
My wife and I agree that we should not reward our children for things we
consider a requirement of being a part of our family: education, chores,
charity, manners, etc.

That being said, I think there's no reason why kids can't have more fun while
they're learning. And if it helps them study/practice longer, what's the harm?

I agree that your title is more exacting. :)

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die_sekte
The problem isn't any individual 3rd grader, the problem is the nearly
society-wide acceptance of innumeracy, sometimes even approval of innumeracy.
I think this will be one of the factors limiting (economic) growth in the
future.

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cthimmer
I love the idea of personalized education.

My daughters, who LOVE Harry Potter, would kill to have that app too! :)

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gwilliams
This would be a bit more fun with word problems involving the time turner,
potions, etc.

"Fluffy has three heads, and each head can eat two bowls in a sitting...how
many bowls should Hermione fill to satisfy him?"

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mcyger
That's a great idea! I may try to incorporate some word problems into the app
to tie together reading comprehension with basic math skills.

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sparky
In the video, is the guy saying "brilliant!" a sample from a Guinness
commercial? Well played.

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shrikant
From [http://mobilelearningblog.com/2010/10/14/how-to-make-
any-3rd...](http://mobilelearningblog.com/2010/10/14/how-to-make-any-3rd-
grader-love-math/#copyright):

 _The Hermione Granger math app that was created was purely for individual
use. This app will not be distributed, sold, shared or otherwise provided
publicly. We respect the rights of copyright holders._

That just makes me sad.

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dazzawazza
Having worked, tangentially, on a Harry Potter Video game I can tell you that
if the Harry Potter machine thought it could make money from such a title it
would be in every app store on the planet.

