Laura Chapman took the time to research the commercial products that our tax dollars are funding.
“The federal “love-in for gamification” on display at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (January, 8, 2018) is really a project of The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. This program, established in 1990, offers grants to help “domestic small businesses” get federal support for projects that have “potential for commercialization.”
“The SBIR (taxpayers) supported more than half of the game-related projects in this year’s Expo. SBIR programs are part of the work at the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and Department of Agriculture, and US Department of Education (Institute of Education Sciences, Office of Special Education Programs, Office of Innovation and Improvement, Office of Educational Technology and Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education).
“SBIR grants are also tied to programs at the Smithsonian, Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, Environmental Protection Agency, USAID, and NASA
“This lovein is scheduled to have 38 participants. Participants were listed but without much information, so I looked at the website of at each, albeit briefly, in order to see where the investments of taxpayer money is going in support of for-profit ventures in tech.
“More than a handful of these ventures are so well established that on-going federal support for them seems to me unnecessary. I judge that this is not just a commercial showcase for new tech products/services but also a venue for lobbying on behalf of sustained funding for the SBIR program and the many branches of government that sponsor these investments.
“Here is my analysis of the tech products/services being marketed at the love-in.
“THESE ARE FOR SCIENCE AND STEM
1. Alchemie games.com—Machine learning platform for college gateway courses in physics, statistics, or economics.
2. Andamio Games.com— “iNeuron,” app with lessons on basic neuroscience concepts built on state standards.
3. Apprendis.com—Digital science materials, with virtual labs that automatically assess students’ skill level.
4. Future Engineers.org— NASA sponsored design K-12 competition for multi-use tools and customized equipment astronauts can use.
5. IntellAdapt.com—Portfolio of adaptive courses for STEM subjects (pedagogy, “big data” analytics, remediation) with forthcoming “Brainwave Learning Strategy Aptitude Test.”
6. Killer Snails.com—Science games supported by the National Science Foundation, content partner: American Museum of Natural History.
7. Molecular Jig Games.com—Cell biology and immune defense game piloted with 14-19 year old high school students.
8. Querium. com—Online artificial intelligence tutoring platform for “critical STEM skills” in “personalized, bite-sized lessons,” for pre-collgiate students, especially for Texas “partners.”
9. Second Avenue Learning.com—Online multimedia games for STEM learning.
10. Strange Loop Games.com—Virtual reality field trips, science-oriented multiplayer games.
11. The Beamer. Mystery game with questions answered by historically important earth/space scientists.
THESE ARE FOR READING AND SCIENCE VOCABULARY
1. Mtelegence.com. Readorium®, web-based adaptive reading program for middle school, aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core, multimodal vocabulary cards, strategy games, differentiated hints, rewards in “Readorium dollars” and gold medals.
2. SmartyPal.com —App for after school vocabulary and science projects for K-2 and 3-5
“THESE ARE DESIGN AND MULTIMEDIA SERVICES FOR HIRE.
1. Fablevision.com—Full service multi-media game design (Sesame Street, Smithsonian. others)
2. Games That Work.com—Design studio for games with virtual reality, augmented virtual reality, computer generated graphics, multiplayer formats.
3. Parametric Studios.com—Design studio with experience in music, video, web production.
Schell Games.com— Design studio for games, full service for education and entertainment.
4. Sirius Thinking.com—Multi-media education and entertainment company. Talent from Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Nickelodeon, and Jim Henson Productions.
5. Spry Fox.com—Game developer for Apple and all android based devices, some word-building games.·
6. Thought Cycle.com— Game designers associated with University of Oregon projects in CBM Math and DIBELS
7. DIG-IT Games.com—Game design services and analytics. Also markets history, math, and other “quest”-like games.
8. Electric Funstuff.com—Game design service and analytics.
“THESE PRODUCTS FOCUS ON MATHEMATICS
1. Brainquake.com—Math instruction, especially in middle school. via Wuzzit™ Trouble.
2. Fluidity Software.com—Specialist in pen-Computing and 3D scientific visualization with products for teaching math
3. MathBrix.com—Adaptive learning in math for “little minds” with interactive visuals.
4. MidSchoolMath.com—Math program beginning in grade 5, with multimedia, interactive “conceptual narratives” and practice with a “test trainer.”
5. Teachley.com—Math apps for ipads, adaptive program for Common Core, “targeting” at-risk students for intervention.
“THESE COMBINE MATH AND ELA.
1. Children’s Progress Academic Assessment™ (CPAA™)— Non-profit computer adaptive tests for Pre-K ELA and math skills with recommendation system (scaffolding) from Northwest Evaluation Association.
2. Cognitive Toy Box.com—Touchscreen games that teach, test, and recommend practice for ELA and math skills.
THIS IS FOR READING ONLY
Foundations in Learning.com—Remedial reading program grade 2 and up, extended practice with adaptive tests marketed as personalized learning, minor role for teacher as “facilitator”
“THESE ARE FOR SPECIAL POPULATIONS
1. IDRT.com—Platform and online products for games based on American Sign Language
2. Analytic Measures.com—Automated assessment of spoken responses special populations—young children, second language speakers, and people with cognitive or language disabilities.
3. Soar Technologies.com & Rush Medical University—Video-based artificial intelligence platform for telemedicine, also to assess and train children with autism spectrum disorders for improved social information processing (SIP) skills
4. Speak Agent.com— Interactive audiovisual game activities for learning academic language and vocabulary especially for dual-language and bilingual programs.
“THESE ARE FOR SELF-HELP
1. 3C Institute.com,—Tools to help children build positive peer relationships and social coping skills, behavioral health.
2. 7 Generation Games.com—Advice on work, parenting, sports, school.
3. Mindset Works.com—“Brainology” products and services (growth mindset) developed and marketed by Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.
4. Scrible.com—Subscription platform for research. Enables tagging, saving, and annotating online resources.
“I am bowing out now. I have overdosed on the hype for these products, too much mindless use of educational jargon as if a panacea. The most intriguing entries (for me) are designed for special populations.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The late Senator William Proxmire (D-WISC) used to catalog these outrageous ways that the taxpayers are “fleeced”, and distributed the “golden fleece” awards.
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feels like even the fleece is far from golden these days, dirtier and dirtier….
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Holy cow!
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:o) I thought Holy Cows were only in India
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In that case Holy Frijoles!
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LOL
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I guess we know how the ESSA funds will be spent.
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I went to one of the websites, Games That Work dot com, and found a game called Vanilla Coke Mystery. You’re a detective tracking down a stolen Vanilla Coke. I wonder who hoped to profit from that “educational” game. Our tax dollars are being spent on joke a cola.
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Almost all of these offerings have been well financed by venture capitalists or from a second federal budget category.. Never mind. the SBIR program has a logo identifying it as a “seed” fund. That makes all of us taxpayers venture capitalists in edtech. Milton Friedman is smiling.
Have a wonderful trip Diane.
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And, one more time, have a great trip, Diane.
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Sweden privatized their educational system.
It’s now “in crisis” and test scores are in “free fall”:
In the most recent Pisa assessment, in 2012, Sweden’s 15-year-olds ranked 28th out of 34 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries in maths, and 27th in both reading and science, significantly below their Nordic neighbours.
Morale among teachers is low, there are concerns about unqualified teaching staff, discipline in some schools is poor and according to a damning report published by the OECD last month, the system is in need of “urgent change”
Fridolin, who has a degree in teaching, says not only have scores in international tests gone down, inequality in the Swedish system has gone up. “This used to be the great success story of the Swedish system,” he said. “We could offer every child, regardless of their background, a really good education. The parents’ educational background is showing more and more in their grades.
“Instead of breaking up social differences and class differences in the education system, we have a system today that’s creating a wider gap between the ones that have and the ones that have not.”
This is what the ed reform echo chamber want in the US- this wholly privatized system.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/sweden-schools-crisis-political-failure-education
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OMG
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“3. MathBrix.com—Adaptive learning in math for “little minds” with interactive visuals.”
I picked this one randomly from the math offerings, and at the end of the introductory video, it says, this is “for personalized learning”.
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“1. Brainquake.com—Math instruction, especially in middle school. via Wuzzit™ Trouble.”
The scientist behind this videogame-like teaching software is Stanford’s and NPR’s Keith Devlin, who is one of the original MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) advocates, and supporter of Common Core.
On his blogs, he complains about how the good ideas behind MOOCs and CC got distorted by implementation and by politics. I do not think, he fully realizes that these distortions necessarily with any kind of top down approach to change.
Reading his thoughtful blogs on MOOCs, Common Core, etc, I have the feeling, he misses another basic point: learning is a social activity involving the teacher and the students in a class, and any kind of proposal to base teaching and learning on non-human factors like technology misses this point. If some do not like the way math is currently taught, then they should propose how teachers need to be trained differently, how student-teacher interactions can be enhanced instead of giving up on teachers and find solutions elsewhere, like in video games.
We are humans, and we feel and do our best in an environment which feels similar to a family. Like good parenting will always be based on the parent-children interaction, effective learning will always be based on the personal interaction between teacher and children.
Let’s face it, a teacher with a magical, caring personality leaves a much greater impact on kids’ lives and learning than all the video games, iphones, magic boards, teaching methods combined.
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