It makes perfect sense to make active learning a part of teaching on schools, unfortunately it is difficult for teachers to succeed with it in practice. They lack time and hands to do it with thus the desire to create active learning is a cause of frustration and challenge. Most of the teachers we talk to say that they are familiar with the positive effects of active teaching and they really wish that it was easy to create in practice.

Research shows that pupils learn better and more when they move. That is because movement increases the blood flow to the brain, which increases focus and working memory. But, making sure that the pupils get to move in their everyday school life and teaching can be difficult and time consuming in practice.

Learning and movement all in one

Hopspots is an interactive learning tool that is designed to actively engage children in their learning by combining it with play and movement. Hopspots consists of 12 wireless spots that are connected to an app for iPad and a speaker uniter, and in that way combines technology with the physical space and focuses on children’s interaction.

The spots register touch and light up in a broad range of colors. They have a total range of 20 meters on each side of the speaker unit, which allows you to combine learning with a lot of movement when you spread the spots far out. The speaker unit is equipped with wheels and made of a light wood, which makes it really easy to move around. The speaker unit also functions as storage and charger to the spots when you attach the power cord. With a Hopspots start-kit you get a complete solution that is mobile and only takes of the space of the speaker unit.

Hopspots is widely applicable

The Hopspots-app contains a line of different educational games that are targeted to children at the age of 2-5. The games cover everything from simple movement games, music- and dance games to games, where you can programme academic content and interactive stories for the 4th to 9th graders. With light, sound, movement and the element of gasification the children are motivated to practice fokus, memory, language learning, decision-making, collaboration and much more when they play with Hopspots. Several of the games have been developed with special needs children in mind, be that e.g. children suffering from ADHD and Autism, as they make it possible to practice cognitive training in combination with use of the senses.

Programming made simple

Hopspots not only makes it possible to create motivating and fun teaching. It also allows children to become digital co-creators of learning content when they record their own games in the app. Children simply use the iPad’s camera- and record function for making relevant content for school subjects in the games. In that way Hopspots can be adapted to fit any age and academic level. The option of co-creating learning content rather than just consuming material that has already been made, equips the children with the necessary skills to become critical users of modern technology and prepares them for an even more digitalized and technological future.

Hopspots is a unique product that is very versatile in use. Everyone, from 2-year-olds to elderly, can benefit from using Hotspots as it can be used for practicing a lot of different skills, e.g. language learning, programming, cognitive training, motor skills, concentration, memory etc.

Active literature classes

Very often we get questions on how to create active learning in the literature class. With Hopspots it is easy and fast!

You can do it real fast and easy with for instance the Hopspots-game, Mix’n’Match. You could for instance practice spelling. The pupils step on one spot and hear “Horse”. They then have to find the spot that says “H-O-R-S-E” for make a match. In that way they could also play with rhymes, opposites, word classes etc.

With Hopspots you can also create an in-depth themed literature class with the game, The Island, which is for the 4th to 9th graders. The Island is an interactive Robinsonade-game that combines movement with an introduction to classic social science topics and challenges pupils on their collaboration skills.

Active learning in math

If you need ideas on how to create active learning in your math teaching, you can read more about it under Games, but there are also a couple of ideas for you here.

You can for instance teach the preschoolers how to add up to 10 in Mix’n’Match – one spot says “7” and then you have to find the one that says “3” to match a pair, and the game goes on until you have matched all the pairs.

Or use Code a Spot to learn the tables. The pupils or the teacher records the 3 times table on the spots, which they then spread out randomly on the floor. The pupils then have to jump around on the spots to hear the numbers that are hidden on them. They then arrange the spots in the right order on the floor and press them again to check if the found the right order in the table.

Hopspots is an easy way of combining learning with movement! Read more about it here.