Facebook use could help drive maths ability

More time on Facebook could be a help rather than a hindrance to Irish teenagers’ maths ability as a new internet programme makes it a reward for sums supremacy.

The parents of 11 to 16-year-olds can use the Aftermath software created by Dubliner Ronan Higgins and his team to link time on social networking and other sites to their progress with a series of maths questions.

Using a driving game in which they choose a multiple choice answer from one of three toll booths, kids build up credits to be cashed in with internet time each time they get through one with the right answer.

“There are different time rewards for each question, depending on the difficulty, ranging from one to three minutes. Everybody starts at level zero and the game adapts the standard of questions based on the student’s ability in previous tests,” said Ronan.

He already has a firm developing smartphone applications but the Aftermath start-up was based on the experiences of his older brother Pierce. The fellow director’s three teenage children were spending a lot of time on Facebook and other social networking sites.

“Parents can install the software and decide which sites require the child to answer maths questions before entry, so they might limit say, Facebook, Twitter or any others they choose,” said Ronan.

The programme is available for free trial download but will cost €19.99 or 5.5c a day, which he says is relatively cheap for the service provided.

“There are already parental control programmes and, separately, there are games-based education sites but where there is no real value to the points earned. As far as we know, it’s the first software to use online time as a reward for educational exercises,” he said.

The company has had help from a second-level maths teacher to devise the questions, which cover around 80% of content in the Junior Certificate maths syllabus. Work is ongoing with the Aftermath developers to make an application to be used on smartphone and tablet computers.

The programme was developed with the help of Enterprise Ireland innovation vouchers that gave the brothers access to the expertise of Trinity College Dublin’s Centre for Research in IT in Education (CRITE). Their work is now moving toward the possibility of similar systems for other school subjects.

And while the launch co-incides with events for Maths Week happening around Ireland, there are plans for possible use of the programme abroad.

“We plan to support other countries’ curricula, we’ve got part of the UK and United States curricula under way, but it will be a few months before any of that is finalised,” said Ronan.

* www.getaftermath.com