Technology Tools
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Lure of the Labyrinth game from MIT's Education Arcade ...
Technology Tools
MidSchoolMath
Technology Tools
Technology Tools
Educators often take advantage of educational technologies as they make the shifts in instruction, teacher roles, and learning experiences that next gen learning requires. Technology should not lead the design of learning, but when educators use it to personalize and enrich learning, it has the potential to accelerate mastery of critical content and skills by all students.
The Innovation: Ko’s Journey
Grades 5 through 8 constitute a critical period for students when engagement often decreases and U.S. test scores drop. Ko’s Journey is a web-based, modular math game that overcomes students’ emotional resistance to math by providing highly engaging and purposeful math within the context of an immersive video game. It presents math as something to be explored, with purpose and meaning for students. Within the easy-to-use game, unique programming features track the each student’s progress and provide relevant teacher-friendly assessment information on an ongoing basis.
Common Core State Standards:
Ko's Journey in the Classroom
Results Achieved
Students engaged in game experiences and weekly tutoring sessions over a four year period were 82% more likely to score in the proficient category on state tests compared to their peers.
The Grant Project
MidSchoolMath, formerly Imagine Education, used NGLC funding to resolve game and delivery technical issues to make Ko’s Journey a commercially viable product. In addition, the team created an animated guidebook, a new module, and a new bridge curriculum to help students relate the game’s math concepts to standardized test questions.
Partners: Florida Virtual School, University of Colorado, Sky Hop Productions
Principal Investigator: Scott Laidlaw, Co-Founder, scott@midschoolmath.com
The Biggest Story Problem
Long term Goal: To work directly with teachers, schools and districts to improve and enhance math programs for grades 5 through 8.
MidSchoolMath plans to release two new products in 2015:
- EMPIRES is MidSchoolMath’s second online game and the first socially-networked math game that uses math in context to support learning of Grades 7 and 8 CCSS.
- MidSchoolMath Toolset integrates MidSchoolMath’s three products—Ko’s Journey, Empires, and Test Trainer Pro—within a classroom manager, an assignment builder. and various math story project development tools.
"Using Ko's Journey in our classrooms was an amazing opportunity. Students were so excited to play the game and get to the next level. A couple of the main benefits for our students was their cooperative learning environment which seemed automatic and their interest in learning the skills necessary to advance in the game."
–Shawna Yager & Cherlynn Lee, 7th grade math teachers, Kirland Middle School, Kirtland NM