Neuroscience meets Pedagogy..... Glow Master

I tried out a really interesting product today developed in HK, its a combination of neuroscience and a gaming app, the goal of the product is to help you improve your concentration skills. The app has mainly been developed for children who find it hard to focus, or who have ADHD issues. The great thing about this solution is its no intrusive and is in my view much better than putting children on to any form of medication.

In essence the product via a portable brainwave (EEG) sensing headset is able to monitor the focus levels while on screen graphics in the game reinforce improvement in focus skills as you play the game. As you focus more on the flame at the back of the jet the flame gets bigger and the plane flys faster.

My simple explanation of how this works is to say compare what happens when you build muscle memory, the first time you drive a car, or try to hit a golf ball some many things are not automatic, your trying to think through all the actions you have to take. Eventually it all clicks and its becomes automatic, so we have muscle memory, now imagine the same principle in the context of the brain. Because we start to learn what we have to do to focus, over time we can find it easier to focus because we have now built up some neuron pathways that always fire together when we need to focus.

Whats really interesting is the fact we are seeing a convergence of neuroscience and mobile technology with pedagogy into helping children generate new skills so they can become more effective learners.

You can find out more about this at www.playto.org