Mathieu Marunczyn is an Australian school teacher who works with young children with special needs. Earlier this year, we sent him a Leap Motion Controller. Mathieu has posted about his students’ experiences on his blog, and yesterday their story was featured in a new video:
While you can read the full story on the Leap Motion blog, we caught up with Mathieu to ask about his experiences with different Leap Motion apps. He had some thoughts for developers who want to create educational apps for younger users.
How are you integrating technology with children’s learning experiences at Jackson School?
When I started, my role was very open in the sense that I was given a large capacity to do what I wanted to do. In a school that was basically all Windows XP computers and stock-standard IT curriculum, I just decided to start shaking things up. It’s very organic, and I hate to use that word, but it is in that sense. It’s purely about the kids being engaged in what they’re doing.
I’m lucky in a sense that working with technology is the most interesting subject for many of the kids. It’s a big deal, especially as they progress with their lives. It’s just seeing the potential – I don’t have the computer smarts to create the programs, unfortunately. But I know there are developers out there who will create things that will change lives.
How did your students experience Leap Motion apps for the first time?
Different kids reacted to games differently. Sortee was a hit across year groups. The little guys loved it, because they generally had the literacy skills to recognize most of the shapes and the words. The older ones, they just go ballistic with Octorhythm and Sortee, because they have a really strong sense of accomplishment. I’ve had kids whack my laptop screen as they see their hand creating a response to the action. That’s the wonderful thing about kids, especially my kids with special needs – there’s no holding back.
You’ve been working closely with the creators of Sortee at Flow Studios. What does Sortee have to offer educators?
That’s a standout app. With Sortee, you can look at the app and the interaction, and then you can look at the learning that can be extended from it. For kids who are in early kindergarten, you can familiarize them with items. There’s literacy involved. Recognizing the object. There’s hand-eye coordination, mental exercise, and the general physical interaction. So with that one app you have obviously engagement, but you can stem other aspects of learning from it.
What sorts of apps would you like to see for kids with autism?
The word I always come back to in education is engagement. Without engagement, you get nowhere. One idea would be to have kids sort out items. For instance, what goes in their school bag and what goes in the kitchen. For a lot of kids with autism, role-playing those positions can be quite intimidating.
Anything that helps them understand social cues is very good. With kids with autism, if you’re producing circumstances that support a social aspect – getting the kids to talk and discuss what they’re doing with each other and interacting – that’s a wonderful skill. Not only are they learning, not only cruising around the world, they’re talking to their peers, supporting each other, and encouraging each other.
Mathieu Marunczyn is the IT Leader and eLearning coach for Jackson School in Victoria, Australia. You can hear more about his work with special-needs kids at matsclassroom.com.
Are you working with children using the Leap Motion Controller? How did their experience compare with Mathieu’s kids, and what advice could you give other developers? Let us know in the comments.
