ETEC 511: Tipping Point

One of our projects for ETEC 511: New Foundations of Educational Technology was to identify a significant shift and technological change in an educational technology where the adoption of a newer technology displaces a previous one.

For this group project, we have chosen to focus on the small-scale tipping point case of the technology adoption of Mathology through the lenses of: differentiated learning, differentiated instruction, and differentiated assessment.

Mathology is a digital and print math resource that shifts learning from traditional paper-and-pencil tasks to more hands-on, engaging, and accessible learning experiences. It includes interactive activities, sample unit plans, “little books”, and built-in assessments that support all learners. Mathology supports differentiated learning by meeting students where they’re at in terms of current proficiency. Depending on the individual student, Mathology can assist them with extra support, extension, or something in between. This digital platform blends core instructional strategies with tools that allow for differentiated instruction and assessment in real-time. Inspired by the idea of “Mathland,” where students explore and build stronger foundations of math in authentic, meaningful, and situated ways, Mathology helps create inclusive, accessible, student-centered classrooms where every learner can thrive.

Mathology represents a cross-curricular shift in the elementary math classroom by displacing traditional teaching tools and systems with digital and printed counterparts for educators. Where teachers often rely on calculators and counting manipulatives in routines and curriculum, Mathology’s digital offerings package this workflow of lesson preparation, delivery, and assessment together in an interactive way that blends different areas of learning, literacies, and content knowledge. Whether it be dice, playing cards, cubes, blocks, worksheets, or even textbooks, Mathology represents a shift in physical artifacts of math teaching that focuses on an accessible learner- centered experience.

The COVID-19 pandemic marked a critical tipping point for digital educational resources. School systems across the globe shifted from in-person to online learning. The transition of mathematical modelling moved from concrete materials in the classroom to online platforms with digital resources. Pearson Canada Mathology launched their first prototype testing in 2019 which became a central resource for many educators during the pandemic in 2020. The pandemic created both a necessity and opportunity for its digital features that were accessible, user-friendly, and aligned with curriculum goals. “Little books” that were available in print, for instance, were accessible for children and teachers online. Mathematical manipulatives (also known as teaching tools) such as linking cubes, number lines, and coloured counters were used in the classroom to concretely model mathematical thinking in elementary classrooms. This required both students and educators to transition from traditional, concrete instructional methods to more abstract approaches. The tipping point here was the urgent need to maintain meaningful mathematical learning during pandemic-induced school closures. It inevitably pushed educators to fully embrace digital platforms like Mathology to deliver hands-on modelling experiences in a virtual format. Each little book was organized according to grade level and curriculum strand. They had a “Try This Activity” prompt that incorporated consolidation questions for students to check their mathematical learning using virtual manipulatives. This transition, however, revealed and amplified the digital divide. It raised important equity questions that resonate with broader global health disparities in access to resources.

Before the pandemic, mathematical modelling in early education was often facilitated through hands-on activities, group work, and tactile manipulatives. But when schools were forced to close in early 2020, educators had to quickly find ways to replicate these practices virtually. According to Bennett (2020), “The educational experience has been substandard for students during COVID-19,” (Bennett, 2020). Thus, the lack of direct teacher-student interaction and resources left students behind academically and socially. UNESCO (2020) reported that the pandemic triggered a “world crisis in education,” which led to global efforts and included digital innovation to maintain some form of student engagement.

Educational institutions, school boards, and teachers were required to implement digital tools that allowed continuity of learning, especially in math, which was a subject that was particularly impacted by remote instructions especially in primary grades of elementary. Kuhfeld et al. (2020) noted that students faced “substantial learning losses,” particularly in math, and that early and effective intervention was critical. Mathology was one resource that offered digital resources such as virtual access to its collection of little books and modelling tools.

Pearson’s Mathology program effectively met this need. The design of the program was a blend of print and digital tools that included manipulatives, guided math lessons, assessments, and story-based little books. These books—such as Fantastic Journeys and Arrays Bakery —were resources that helped young learners visualize mathematical concepts through storytelling. In pre-pandemic classrooms, students might read Arrays Bakery and then build physical apple arrays using coloured counters. But when classrooms moved online, this tactile activity was replaced with Mathology’s digital features of using digital coloured tiles.

The “Try This Activity” section became particularly useful. In the Fantastic Journeys book, for instance, learners are prompted to use number lines to represent skip counting as an estimation strategy. Educators adapted this to online settings by using shared screens, digital whiteboards, and at-home items for hands-on modelling.

Figure 2 illustrates the learning trajectory from hands-on, in-class exploration to interactive digital engagement using Mathology. The sequence begins with students physically constructing a number line using painter’s tape, shoes, and sticky notes. In classrooms, children learn to anchor their mathematical learning in tangible and authentic contexts. This progresses to collaborative group work with Mathology’s printed activity cards which deepen conceptual understanding through problem-solving strategies in the form of an escape room format. The learning then transitions to the digital environment where students use Mathology’s online tools to click, drag, and drop numbers. Students work on their foundational knowledge in an interactive space that aims to reflect and extend their classroom experience online.

School boards, educational technology leads, and teachers needed engaging, curriculum-aligned virtual resources which triggered this change. In Ontario, for example, school districts partnered with Pearson to provide access to Mathology.ca. The use of this resource peaked between March and June 2020, when the province moved fully online. When addressing this need from a Global Health perspective, COVIDEA (2020) states that “education systems had to adapt almost overnight to a fast-changing and increasingly digital world,” (COVIDEA, 2020). Tools like Mathology became lifelines for educators.

While some classrooms transitioned smoothly, others faced significant obstacles. Unfortunately, the shift highlighted digital inequities deeply rooted in socioeconomic status and geographic location. Sievertsen and Burgess (2020) argued that “school closures will increase inequality in learning,” (Sievertsen et. al, 2020). These gaps reflect global health inequalities where those with fewer resources were most at risk.

Students who did not have consistent and reliable internet access, working devices, or adult support at home faced challenges with engaging or even accessing Mathology’s online features. We might begin to analyze and critique the ways in which the digital education gap mirrors global health inequities. Access to essential services such as education or healthcare is influenced by systemic factors like income and infrastructure.

This comparison reinforces that digital learning is not just an educational issue—it’s a public equity issue. Students in rural communities or underfunded schools faced disproportionate challenges. As COVIDEA (2020) emphasizes, “Appropriate technologies must be accessible to all, not just those in well-resourced environments,” (COVIDEA, 2020).

A major benefit of Mathology that led it to a tipping point is the use of personalized algorithms to deliver a differentiated learning experience for each student. Developer of the idea of constructionism Seymour Papert’s metaphorical concept of Mathland is instrumental in grounding the importance of engaging and situated math instruction. He posited that the methods used to teach math to younger students have been broadly ineffective due to several reasons, the primary being the lack of situated learning. His analogy was that, similar to how one wouldn’t teach dance having students memorize choreography before physically dancing, math shouldn’t be taught through memorization (TedX Talks, 2014). Instead, math should be taught in a more natural way, similar to how we learn language. Gary Stager explains the Papert’s metaphor in deeper detail in the following video (6:00 to 8:56).

While Mathology addresses many core challenges with traditional math instruction, especially at a young age, there are challenges as well. Kate Crawford identified several major issues when large international tech corporations like Google or Meta operate with little regulatory oversight and without public input (2021, p. 149). In the case of some organizations, they reach an economic convergence that allows them to monopolize an ecosystem.

This is one potential challenge of Mathology as a case for reaching a large-scale tipping point. Mathology is owned by Pearson Education, an educational subsidiary of multinational corporation Pearson plc, which already holds a level of public wariness due to its size and for-profit structure. As Crawford warns, a concentration of economic power in a few tech companies can lead to a Global North–centered system that also incentivizes profit over pedagogy and student success. In an increasingly technologically converging society, building curriculums and lessons around new systems that don't have a 1:1 competitive replacement could risk one player such as Pearson having a monopolistic hold on an area of education. Once adopted, in the case that an organization wants to change systems, not only would they have to go through the costly process of replacing lesson plans and templates specific to that platform, but they would also have to retrain staff and onboard students into the replacement. Some issues with granting this level of power in a publicly funded education system to a single for-profit company include less incentive for further innovation due to the tool not being easily replaceable, reduced incentive to create a more economically efficient system, and a messy success structure that creates pressure to artificially inflate student grades to show the value of the tool, whether it is actually helping the student succeed or not.

Mathology re-imagines math learning through hands-on digital interactivity, immediate feedback, and a storytelling framework that challenges the status quo of traditional teaching tools. It exemplifies media convergence and rethinks the cost of hidden digital labour requirements of educators (lesson preparation, implementation, and assessment) within the digital platform.

Mathology's emergence during the COVID-19 pandemic offers more than just a case of digital innovation, it signals a critical tipping point in how teachers understand and deliver math instruction. While its multi-modal tools enabled learning continuity and differentiation during a time of global pandemic, the platform’s success also underscores deeper tensions from educators and policymakers seeking to push the envelope further. By confronting the long-standing digital divide between innovation and inequality in a world increasingly shaped by educational technology, Mathology emerges as a step forward towards a tool that can empower educators.

As Crawford (2021) reminds us that innovation in education is never neutral, it is shaped by who those who build and control the tools and what gets left out. In this case of Mathology as a Tipping Point, we invite users and readers alike to think critically about the sustainable use of digital and analog tools in regards to the pedagogical effectiveness, ethical data collection, and the costs associated with the tools usage.

Ultimately, what defines a tipping point is not just the arrival of something new, but the value it carries for the users, the labour it demands, and the possibilities it opens or displaces for educators and learners alike. It is a fine balance between those who benefit, those who decide, and what values are embedded in our tools and technologies that end up configuring the users experience with the technology. As with the implementation of any technology, the goal is not simply to replace old with new, but to reshape the educational playing field for students and teachers in a just, equitable, and sustainable way for all learners and educators.