Views on Ed Tech - specifically Doodle

[EdTeck]

Our primary school has recently switched to using Doodle for all homework. This includes Maths, English and Spelling (plus Times Tables Rock Stars). The school believes this is better for children as the content is tailored to their needs based on the results of a baseline test which is taken at the start of the term. Previously homework was set using CGP books for maths and English.

Many parents seem frustrated by this switch because they were not consulted and some believe that the gamification built into Doodle means kids seem to be rushing through questions to earn points/stars rather than taking their time to understand the problem.

There is mixed evidence online regarding educational technology for primary age kids and the gamification of learning. Most of the evidence that I have read seems to suggest it’s use should be limited and targeted.

We have chosen to stick with paper based homework using CGP books.

I’m interested in hear of other people’s experiences of using learning apps at primary school, and specifically the Doodle platform.

Anybody?

Doodlemaths has good evidence regarding it's effectiveness.

On a subjective note, I have used it with my children, and noticed it really helped to raise their standards, which is something that the teachers have noticed too.

This is a really fair concern and honestly it's the right question to be asking. The rushing-for-points thing is real, I have watched it happen: if an app rewards speed, some kids learn to game it by guessing fast to rack up stars, and they come away having practised guessing rather than maths.

The thing I would say from our experience is that it depends entirely on what the app actually rewards. The better ones do not hand out points for speed at all. They gate progress on getting things right, adapt the difficulty to your child, and slow down on the topics they are shaky on. With those, rushing works against the child, because wrong answers just mean the app keeps them on that topic. The gamification is then only a wrapper that gets them to come back, not the thing being measured.

We do a bit of both here. Paper (we are CGP fans too, the arithmetic workbooks are brilliant) plus a short app session a few times a week, mainly to keep it ticking over on the days I have not got the energy to sit down with a workbook. For the app side we use mathstutor.me. The reason it has worked better for us than some of the more gamey ones is that it adapts to the child's level, and the points are tied to accuracy and progress rather than how fast they click, which is the bit that stops the mindless rushing. The free tier gives eight short exercises a day, which is plenty alongside school homework.

For what it's worth, your instinct to keep it limited and targeted matches what most of the evidence says. An app a few times a week as a supplement, not a replacement for proper paper practice and actual understanding, is a sensible place to land.