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i totally agree with you, let s engage the imagination of kids, let s create situations where kids want to learn by necessity and own interest and drive! deeper learning! that said, once you are motivated to learn, you still need tools to get fluency and learn conceptual stuff rapidly. Although i love that you make me think about what i m doing, i m still convinced we need specific tools. We need both approaches i think!

interesting point. It was not conceived as headstart, but it is sold as headstart. I want it as a real game, and i want it as an efficient learning tool. I want it for discovery and shared learning moment, and i want it for avoiding math challenges later. I want it for pleasure and i want it to teach very difficult stuff quickly. Seems like many contradictions here. arghh u revealed that i m human i guess : ), with incompatible goals and complex realities. At the same time, this complexity and contradiction makes it a very interesting challenge : )

designer of DragonBox Algebra here... 0- i totally agree with your post : ) 1-the game was never conceived as a headstart product! 2-our goal is to deliver products that introduce the big ideas in math in an engaging and efficient way, because math can be such an unnecessary pain for many children 3-we recommend to play DragonBox with family members : ) 4- your reference [1] could be about self regulation (social interaction primarily) and academic achievement: http://people.oregonstate.edu/~mcclellm/ms/Morrison,%20Ponit...

Hi, as the guy behind the game concept, I am thrilled to read all these comments and discussions. For those interested I can explain how I thought of this game and which goals we try to reach with it. First of all, the game is a direct translation of my view of math. Abstract objects, relations between them, and playing around with it. Obviously there is no One mathematics. Each of us we have our own subjective understanding of it. Secondly, I have three kids, and I want the best for them. Mathematics can be used to understand better our world and can give access to better decisions. The earlier, the better. That means I d like them to learn K-12 math as soon as they can get it. And they could get everything now, if we had the right tools. Just to say that I make sure that the games we create transfer to useful knowledge. I am not here to sell another game, I am here to make children learn. Third, first we teach how to solve equations and then, how to set up equations. 4. Our goal is to make players think and learn. For example, players have to figure out themselves how to solve an equation with x in denominator. I think we are the only ressource that let a kid find out that by herself. School has no time to let kids spend time on high level thinking... 5. most importantly, this game is about discovery learning. Trial and error. The only reason there are texts, is that parents feel unease with textless discovery games. Children and parents learn completely differently. So imagine what a teacher does to our poor kids (i am myself a teacher, so i try to replace myself...). She cant test her teaching as we tested our game... how can you be better without feedbacks? 6. no teacher will be able to beat this game. Because of feedbacks, discovery mechanisms, beautiful symbols, tests etc.. players solve 200 equations in 1,5 hours without any prerequisite... and explanations. This game avoid many pitfalls that communication with words create when explaining algebra. Teaching algebra from arithmetic, concrete to abstract is to my mind crazy. It s an unecessary step. This game is the result of a thinking process where I sat as a big hairy goal to teach K-12 math in less than 20 hours. It is obvious that to do that, we have to think very differently. For example none has noticed that the equation is set up in two dimensions. The game seems simple and obvious and it is easy to start discussing the effect of it. It was pretty complex to make it that simple.... Make complex things simple without oversimplifying, that s the point to discuss to progress in learning science. That s what the game is about. And i hope it inspires many to work with it.