New Infographic, Hot off the Presses!

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A Message from Our Founder

2020 Foresight

I can’t stop thinking about the year 2020. As a working mom of four, that might seem odd—especially since most mornings it’s near impossible just to make it out the door with lunches packed, shoes matched, teeth brushed, and faces clear of breakfast crumbs (mine included).

But the more I think about it, the more I realize that for the graduates of 2020, the future is already upon us.

My oldest child is seven years old. She’s at that wonderful age where everything is interesting and bursting with possibility. She loves to explore, to create, and to question. She’s excited to get to school every morning.

I want so badly to keep her here, in her world of relentless curiosity—but another reality is looming. Once kids hit nine or ten, distractions add up, standardized testing moves in, and learning suddenly becomes less like play and more like work.

The truth is, the middle-grade years are critical predictors of success in high school, college, and beyond—but this is the exact age at which many kids lose interest in learning. School loses relevance to daily life; it moves from studying bugs in jars and baking bread to ever-thicker textbooks and multiple-choice tests. Our instructional methods, to be blunt, begin to really suck.

As a former elementary-school teacher, I have the utmost respect for these superhuman individuals and their endless amount of giving. They are painfully aware that current instructional methods do not deliver desired outcomes or motivate students. They are trying to effect classroom change and adapt to the technological advances that are breaking the field wide open.

But change is slow. 2020 is only eight years away and that graduating class is nine years old. Kids need a bridge NOW.

Which brings me back to my daughter: Though I can’t stop her from growing up, there are some things I can do to help her along the way.

I can help her prepare for the challenges that lie ahead, both in school and in life.

I can give her the confidence in her ability to make sense of the world, even when I’m not around.

I can equip her with the tools she needs to make informed decisions.

You see, I happen to have a team of superheroes from media, learning science, development, design, and education working to create these experiences for ALL children. Collectively we represent moms, dads, teachers, scientists, writers, gamers, and developers.

Our mission: To kick-start a generation of confident, capable kids who are going to change the world.

But we can’t do it alone. As my five-year-old says, “Come on buddies, let’s hero up!” Sign up to find out more.

New Infographic, Hot off the Presses!

2013: The Learning Revolution Is Here

When I was a teacher 12 years ago, I’d always tell my students, “You have a right to learn. As a teacher it is my job to make sure that happens. At home, if you have a fever you go to your mom. At school, if something doesn’t makes sense you come to me.”

Current standardized test scores and graduation rates make it very clear that our kids need better instruction. But today, as more and more is asked of our kids, they also need support. They need strategies, resources, and individualized attention. They need to know that yes, they have a right to learn.

Change can’t come soon enough, yet my years teaching showed me that change in schools is slow. As a mom of four, I don’t have time to wait for that change. So when my position as VP Digital Publishing and Product Development at Random House led me to the intersection of mobile apps, games, education, and learning science, I decided that as a parent it was time to ask for something different.

A brilliant learning scientist convinced me that all children could succeed given the proper instruction. He used a methodology called generative instruction to build a program that could take any child from knowing their ABCs to reading on a second grade level. His colleague launched a school that has helped more than 18,000 struggling children. This school required every teacher to teach the same exact way, making it hard to scale, but easy to automate.

The wheels in my mind began to turn. What if instructional materials actually instructed? What if we opened whole worlds to children by showing them how smart they really are? What if instead of buying a book on hurricanes, a child could create one? Why not harness the behavioral cues of a good game, the instructive acumen of a master teacher, and the effectiveness of generative instruction to deliver strategies and deep learning for each and every child?

So I took my personal savings and brought together parents, teachers, scientists, gamers, instructional designers, and kids to do just that. Together we are Outthink Inc.

Outthink’s first mobile app, Tornado Maker, shows what’s possible with todays technology. It teaches the basic ingredients and fundamental concepts of a storm (such as mass, volume, density, buoyancy, air pressure, and wind speed) and equips kids to build and manipulate a tornado right on their tablet. In the following app, Tornado Master, they take on the role of storm scientist and tackle tornado prediction.

Right now, we’re running a Kickstarter campaign to ask parents, teachers, scientists and developers to make a statement: Yes, we want something better. Yes, we want this type of learning experience to exist.

So, happy new year! Let’s make 2013 the year of a learning revolution! Help us put technology to good use, and start a true learning revolution.

Andrea Continues the Conversation on HuffPost LIVE

Watch Outthink CEO and Mom Extraordinaire Andrea Sheehan discussing kids and screen time on another segment of HuffPost LIVE!

Outthink Inc’s Appearance on Huffington Post Live

Andrea, our fearless CEO, appeared on Huffington Post Live yesterday in a segment called “Tech Game Changers” with host Mike Sacks and Caroline Hu Flexer from Duck Duck Moose. We hope you check it out!

To Work in DUMBO

Every day as I exit the subway on Jay and York Street and begin the downhill trek to Outthink’s office, I inhale that pungent East River air and smile. I love working in DUMBO.

I never expected it. As a Brooklyn dweller I always enjoyed spending Monday through Friday working in Manhattan, because, well that’s where everything seems to happen. The deals are signed, the delis fully stocked, the happy hours plentiful, the energy palpable. I really and truly love Brooklyn, but living and working there seemed like too much of a good thing.

But Outthink’s digs at 10 Jay Street showed me that the neighborhood has a lot more to offer than city views.

First, there’s the energy. Startups abound here (Magsty, How About We, etc.), especially those of the tech variety. Hardly anyone working here is over 40 (or even 30!) and most are operating lean, digital-focused companies. The influx of budding tech entrepreneurs makes for a tight-knit community of likeminded individuals who are all hell-bent on helping each other out. The proof? Two weeks after Hurricane Sandy flooded much of the area, the DUMBO Improvement District raised more than $40,000 for those affected by the storm.

Then there are the (slightly) bigger digital companies such as Etsy, HUGE, Small Planet, Red Antler, and Wireless Generation, to name a few. NYU PolyTech is incubating some of the finest tech talent in the five boroughs. All of this youthful vigor electrifies the neighborhood in much the same way the inimitable E.B. White described in This Is New York: “The city makes up for its hazards and its deficiencies by supplying its citizens with massive doses of a supplementary vitamin—the sense of belonging to something unique, cosmopolitan, mighty and unparalleled. . . .”

DUMBO also boasts art galleries, theater (St. Ann’s Warehouse), and one of Brooklyn’s best bookstores (powerHouse). But, as with any office area, the deciding factors are really its coffee and lunch options. Brooklyn Roasting Company on Jay Street sources only fair trade, Rainforest Alliance, and organic certified beans (and they are some of the kindest coffee snobs I know). Food trucks serve up everything from gourmet grilled cheese to vegan faire at lunch time. And if you just want a salad, try the food bar at Foragers or a made-to-order option at DUMBO Kitchen.

Factor in the reasonably priced rent, and DUMBO may be the perfect place to for any small, innovative new business to call home.

Join Our Next Twitter Party: Let’s Engineer a Better Future!

There’s a problem looming for our kids and it’s called middle school. These tween years are the key determiner of success in high school, college and beyond. Yet at the time when kids are their most developmentally needy, we start standardized testing and increase rote and lecture style instruction. We need to use learning science and technology to replace dusty textbooks with more effective and exciting learning experiences.

Imagine a different future. What do you want to see? Join us to engage, to discuss, to have a conversation about the future of education.

When: Tuesday, Dec 11th @ 1pm - 3pm (EST)

Hash tag: #TweenEdChat

Building Reasoning Skills by Thinking Out Loud

When you’re working through a tough problem, how often do you talk to yourself? Maybe you think silently in words, or maybe you mumble quietly. Maybe a few words slip out while your attention is completely focused on the task at hand. Have you ever asked a friend for help and a new idea popped into your head while you were explaining the problem, before your friend said anything at all?

Reasoning through a problem involves a chain of thought—a dialogue—in which you think of something, determine if it brings you closer to your goal, and prompt yourself to think of the next step or go in a completely different direction.

Productive reasoning doesn’t come naturally, however. We have to learn how to reason effectively, and that involves learning how to maintain a goal-directed dialogue, evaluate our own efforts, and guide our own thinking. We need to be both “problem solver” and “listener.”

When first learning these skills, working with a companion allows a learner to focus on one part of the dialogue at a time. The companion can play two roles: listener for the problem solver and problem solver for the listener.

As a listener, the companion can:

provide encouragement;
remind the problem solver to consider past experiences and similar situations;
prompt the problem solver to break the problem into parts;
suggest he or she try a different representation of the problem; and
remind the problem solver to double-check the work.

When it’s time to learn and practice effective listening skills, the companion becomes the problem solver. Now, the companion solves the problem while the listener evaluates each step, provides encouragement, and engages in the activities listed above.

When problem-solving and listening skills are both fluent, they combine to form the internal dialogue that we call reasoning. Although we still seek out problem-solving companions, we also might think of a new idea before they’ve had a chance to listen. We were listening to ourselves.

Joanne Robbins of Morningside Academy in Seattle has written extensively on problem solving. Here’s a recent paper for more on her specific method.

Outthink on Kickstarter!

Big News! Outthink Inc. has officially launched a Kickstarter campaign to secure funding to finish our first app, Tornado Maker, which teaches complex science concepts to kids using immersive mobile gameplay.

Why Kickstarter? Because we’re literally this close to finishing our app, but we need that last bit of funding to get us over the finish line.

We’re also using Kickstarter to prove that parents, kids, teachers, weather fans, and geeks of all stripes really want smart tech that helps them understand the way the world works. That people are excited about science in America, that people believe in the promise that technology can spark learning and achievement where textbooks have failed.

If everyone participates even just a little bit we’ll reach our goal, finish our app in time for next tornado season, and demonstrate to investors that there is a market for smart science apps that teach.

Thanks for your support!