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From Across the Pond |
Gaming or Learning?
on June 4, 2009
I came across a really interesting piece of software recently from a company called Screen Learning. It develops educational games for assessing children between the ages of 3 and 6. The company has two products: Screen Learning and Smart Cat Profiling. Both products utilize a games-based approach to assessing children, and the main characters of the games are cats.
Screen Learning is aimed at the schools market and provides a tool to support teachers to identify their pupils strengths and weaknesses, measure their progress and can potentially flag possible learning difficulties at an early stage. The system also compiles a database of information for all children so that the accuracy of the tool can be verified.
The Smart Cat Learning product is aimed at the home/parental market and adopts the same games-based approach as its sister product. It assesses your child's performance in a number of areas and builds up a unique picture of your child's strengths and weaknesses. It then recommends the best next steps for your child to inspire their learning.
The products have been widely tested in the United Kingdom, and the company is now looking to expand into the global market, which includes the United States. It is researching what needs to be done to meet U.S. academic state standards and is also developing versions where the language of instruction is the child's mother tongue.
Screen Learning is a really fun and engaging way of assessing childrens performance, perhaps without them even knowing!
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