A Q&A with Mike Wood
The former Leapfrog executive talks about how his latest development, SmartyAnts.com, is posed to help kids learn to read at their own pace.
Pamela Brill -- Gifts and Dec, 11/17/2010 6:14:25 PM
Playthings: What prompted the development of Smarty Ants? Mike Wood: Smarty Ants creates an opportunity that has never been possible before. I believe we can take virtually every child and make learning to read a thrilling, confidence-building, successful adventure. There are lots of kids for whom reading will be relatively straightforward, and for those we can move them through the curriculum fast enough so that they are always challenged by the next epiphany.
More important to me is that there's a whole bunch of kids who are way behind the eight ball in terms of their ability to learn to read. If we can get those kids into our world, we can move them along at the exact pace at which they're learning. As soon as we detect a child is having trouble, we can give them enough scaffolding to help them learn. Smarty Ants is a hyper-personalized experience that is now possible. In keeping them engaged, we teach them the right material at the right time.
PT: How does Smarty Ants work? How it is designed to work with varying reading abilities and skill sets? MW: When kids register on Smarty Ants.com, they enter a world with their own virtual ant and are joined by three ant friends. They adopt their own dog who learns to read with them. They meet their personal coach, a flea, which shows them how to play learning games.
As part of the introduction, kids go into an ant gym and then into a diving pool where they are assessed to figure out which of 11 reading levels they fall into. When parents register their child, we ask them to give us an assessment of their kid's reading ability. We assume they are overly optimistic, so we start kids at a lower level and then determine where they need to begin working on their skills.
Once we've determined an appropriate level, they enter that level where there are a number of lessons. Beginners are at pre-literacy levels (names of letters, simple sounds, etc.) and they eventually build their own alphabet and letter sounds book that they can print out. We have licensed content from Candlewick Press Story Quiz Shows whose narrators make the stories come alive with inflection and humor. When the story is over, there's a quiz that kids can take even if they don't know how to read.
Kids can also go into a recording studio and teach their dog how to sing the letter alphabet. (We've created 6-7 songs per lesson for the dog to sing; the 11 levels break down into 69 lessons.) I wanted to have games and activities that kids could play on the computer, but I also wanted to have a take-away that would reinforce what they are learning.
PT: Considering parents' increasing concern in limiting their child's screen time, how will Smarty Ants be presented to consumers? MW: I agree that kids shouldn't be glued to a screen. What we can do with the screen is create a secure place where kids can play and where we can actively engage their brains. We can help kids learn by taking advantage of the good things about a screen to create a powerful learning path.
We've done a lot of research with parents and kids about what parents can do to help them become good readers. I'm convinced that the more parents and grandparents know about how Smarty Ants works, they will find their way to our site.
PT: Are there any plans to leverage your prior relationship with educators to potentially integrate Smarty Ants in schools?
MW: There is no stronger endorsement than a teacher endorsement. We've met and are in negotiations with one of the leading educational software developers and distributors in the school systems. I anticipate that sometime next year, we'll be able to launch Smarty Ants in the classroom.
PT: In what is becoming an increasingly saturated market, how will Smarty Ants compete alongside other Web-based learning products?
MW: We really focus on three things: We create product that teachers love, that mothers will say their kids love and that kids will want to play again and again. I think we spent a lot of time on our research by honoring kids, taking all this material and making it a really fun adventure. Once parents see this, they will tell other parents. And once teachers see Smarty Ants as a worthwhile time commitment, word will spread.
At Leapfrog, we changed the way people thought about what educational toys could do. Our hope with Smarty Ants is that we will change how developers build curriculum in a way that will engage and reward kids.
We would love your feedback!
Featured Company
-
Brandwise Inc.
Brandwise serves a model - not just an industry - by integrating, automating, and optimizing the entire sales channel, from wholesale Suppliers to their Reps and the Retailers they service. In short, our software helps Reps and Suppliers sell more and create... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
