November 28, 2012
In Norway, Learning Math is Cooler than Playing Angry Birds
By Rich Steeves, TMCnet Web Editor
What do American kids love? They love video games, certainly. You can bet that many students, as they sit in the classroom today, are wishing they could be on a smartphone or tablet playing the latest version of Angry Birds (probably the Star Wars edition). You can also bet that most American kids do not love math. Why, then, is a mathematics application the top selling app in the Norwegian app store, beating even those omnipresent Angry Birds? And what will happen when the company behind this app tries to invade the United States with its revolutionary teaching method?
The company in question is WeWantToKnow AS, and its goal is nothing less than teaching 12 years math curriculum in 30 hours of game play, which would probably shock my favorite math teacher, Peter Palmer, but could be great news for some of the lazier teachers out there (you know who you are). The company’s first outing, DragonBox, which focuses on algebra, has been downloaded 50,000 times. Over the next year, the company will roll out four new editions of DragonBox focusing on functions, probability, geometry and numbers... Read More
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