Matica Quest - An Answer to Ed Tech
By: Phillip K. Blake
On Thursday January 15th the US Senate Subcommittee of Commerce held a hearing on the Impact of Technology on America’s Youth. Many of these revelations related to cutting edge research about the negative impact that technology itself is having on how kids learn. Or more realistically, why they aren’t learning.
Neuroscientist and educator Dr. Cooney Horvath stated in his congressional testimony, “Across 80 countries, students that use screens for educational purposes for 5 hours per day score 67% of a standard deviation less than kids who rarely or never touch technology at school.” That’s a significant decline. In November, many news outlets across the political spectrum raised the alarm on children's struggles to learn basic math. This isn’t just pandemic-related- it’s a much larger problem.
Schools have become saturated with technology. An entire sector of technology, ED Tech, has spawned to give schools a plethora of options and products. Schools see technology as a way to differentiate and educate for an increasingly diverse student population and ready them for unknown careers of the future. My Master’s thesis explored Interactive Educational Technology, so I’ve long been invested in this question. Dr. Horvath also later adds that “Humans have learned biologically to learn from other human beings, not screens. Screens circumvent that process.” Could what we are doing in schools, not just across the US, but across the entire world with the best of inventions, actually be counter productive?
I have been teaching kids math for well over a decade across a variety of grade levels and schools. Kids are struggling in math, but it can be fixed. All educators have seen it– the light in the kids’ eyes, and that feeling of satisfaction when things start to click. The problem is it takes time. Teachers can only work with a limited number of students. There are only so many hours in a school day. When kids get home, their parents have been busy all day too. Anyone can be good at math, but it does take time. It does take practice.
At Optimal Math we try to create products that we wished we had as kids. We want everyone to be good at math, and they certainly can be. Our products are designed for kids to enjoy learning math. Math is best learned face to face. We designed our card game Matica Quest to be something kids would look forward to playing. Need an engaging math center that the kids beg to play? Maybe you want to sneak in some academic games during the winter doldrums of indoor recess. Are you looking for the perfect family game night activity? Check out Matica Quest today for some off-screen learning fun!