DoodleMaths is a website and
application developed by Ez Education as part of a family of apps, that
includes DoodleTables, DoodleEnglish, and DoodleSpell which specialise in
teaching children between the ages of 4 and 14 about their times tables,
English, and spelling respectively. A further app called DoodleConnect is a
parent app that allows them to monitor their child’s progress within the other
apps.
DoodleMaths, as the name
suggests, focuses on mathematics in general. The app uses an algorithm called
Proxima that takes in the student’s results and the national curriculum for the
child’s age in order to provide questions that give a suitable challenge (EZ Education, 2019). These kind of
algorithms have been found to be greatly beneficial to students who are performing
at an average or below average level, although the research has found that
students performing at a higher than average level do not experience the same benefits
(Geçer, & Dağ, 2012; Richards-Babbs
et al., 2018; Roschelle, Feng, Murphy, & Mason, 2016). In my experience the
app has been used to deliver homework and utilises the Proxima algorithm to
progress students through the national curriculum at the child’s own pace.
However, if a parent feels the app is moving their child onto work that is too
challenging, then they can request the class teacher to force the app to
recalibrate the child’s abilities.
My experience with the app has
entirely come from my younger brother’s homework during Year 1 in primary
school. In my experience, the questions and topics set for him to learn through
the DoodleMaths’ “New This Week” mode have been steadily increasing in
difficulty, but in such a way that he is building on what has come before, such
as one week’s topic discussing how to add 9, and then the following week’s
topic focusing on how to subtract 9. Each week he brings home a new certificate
and has managed to maintain a streak of 150 consecutive days. However, the app
does give students and parents some breathing room in this regard as if you
miss a day then you can catch up by completing two days’ worth of worth the
following day.
However, while the research suggests that the use of the Proxima
algorithm to progress students at their own pace is a good thing for students
performing below average, there is also an air of caution must come alongside it.
David Winter (2019), a concerned parent, noted in his review on the Google Play
Store that his son had become disillusioned with the app as he compared the number
of stars earned to his friends and classmates through the social media aspects
of the app. These aspects include the ability to send messages to other
classmates or to the teacher (although I’ve not seen this in practice as my
brother’s account has bugged out, making it so that he can’t send messages,
despite the teachers looking into it), as well as a space to design a robot
where you buy accessories using the “DoodleStars” that you’ve collected by
completing questions. Teachers can also utilise the app in school time,
allowing students to compare the questions they are being given as well as the
difficulty of the questions, which isn’t particularly hard to do seeing as the
number of questions you have to complete is reliant on how well you have done
up until this point. Dunn and Darlington’s 2016 study found that students were
able to identify when easier work was being given to them over their peers,
which could be extended to how the Proxima algorithm assigns work, with the
teacher simply being swapped out with a computer programme. This could result
in decreased student moral in comparison to more traditional homework methods where
the results are not typically seem by the rest of the class as well as everyone
completing the same work. As such, through a combination of low star results,
comparing themselves to their friends, and the app providing easy questions,
students could also fall into self-fulfilling prophecies where because they are
always given simpler work than their classmates, they begin to see themselves
as rubbish at mathematics and disengage from the homework (Jussim, Robustelli,
& Cain, 2009).
The main mode of the
application is the daily question mode that begins with 5 questions a day,
although as students progress, this can increase to 6 or 7 questions a day.
These questions increase in difficulty based on how well students perform.
After completing several of these daily tests, the “New This Week” section of
the app becomes available which attempts to teach students a new concept. These
small lessons are extremely small in scope (such as a single lesson on how to
effectively add 9), and so can help students progress without throwing multiple
new concepts at them. However, an issue that I’ve encountered with these is
that they appear to favour lots of words over pictures, which while fine for
older children with better reading ages, but younger children who aren’t as
confident in terms of reading may struggle to make sense of these explanations
without adult help. This idea is further complicated as they use more complex
mathematical terms such as “quotient” within the explanations and questions,
the meaning of which isn’t always common knowledge, leading to parents being
unable to explain a question to their child whilst helping with their homework.
Overall, DoodleMaths is a
helpful app that is able to enhance a student’s mathematical ability by
encouraging them through the use of games, stars, and certificates. However,
the application is held back by its potential to discourage students for which
mathematics does not come naturally as well as the advanced mathematical terms
that it chooses to use with 5 year olds who have no reason to learn it.
References
Department for Education. (2013). Mathematics
programmes of study: key stages 1 and 2. Department for Education.
Dunn, K., & Darlington, E. (2016). GCSE Geography
teachers' experiences of differentiation in the classroom. International
Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 25(4), 344-357.
EZ Education. (2019, August). Technology that
'thinks' and sets children's work. Retrieved February 05, 2020, from
DoodleMaths:
www.doodlemaths.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/fact-sheet-proxima.pdf
Geçer, A., & Dağ, F. (2012). A Blended Learning
Experience. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 12(1),
438-442.
Jussim, L., Robustelli, S. L., & Cain, T. R.
(2009). Teacher Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies. In K. R. Wentzel,
& A. Wigfield (Eds.), Handbook of Motivation at School (pp.
349-380). New York: Routledge.
Richards-Babb, M., Curtis, R., Ratcliff, B., Roy, A.,
& Mikalik, T. (2018). General Chemistry Student Attitudes and Success with
Use of Online Homework: Traditional-Responsive versus Adaptive-Responsive. Journal
of Chemical Education, 95(5), 691-699.
Roschelle, J., Feng, M., Murphy, R. F., & Mason,
C. A. (2016). Online Mathematics Homework Increases Student Achievement. AERA
Open, 2(4), 1-12.
Seifert, T. L., & O'Keefe, B. A. (2001). The
relationship of work avoidance and learning goals to perceived competence,
externality and meaning. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 71(1),
81-92.
Winter, D. (2019, December 14). Review of
DoodleMaths. Google Play Store. Retrieved February 05, 2020, from
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ezeducation.doodlemaths.ks2&hl=en_GB&reviewId=gp%3AAOqpTOGKYIdkXvzIl-O3TiBpbDkYaky3Z0Fa1nHBlPKvxppLav-NpKJcUeE6ETKGgPM9rrih_8ev5th7tPvnIeM
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