How Boddle Turned Classroom Math into a Game Kids Choose to Play with Edna Martinson

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We're actually going up against the triple A games that kids are playing that have no educational value, and we want kids to know, like games can be as fun as that and educational. And we just stumbled on this. We were like, "Wait, people are making YouTube videos about Boddle." [laughs] And there's all these YouTube videos, like POVs of kids, you know, playing the game, answering questions, and look at my pet characters and my Boddle character, and they're like fully immersed into it and really see it as one of the games that they would play outside of the classroom, not just because the teacher said, "Get on Boddle, it's math time." Which is exactly the direction we wanna go.

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Welcome to EdTech Insiders. We have a fantastic founder with us today. Edna Martinson is the co-founder and COO of Boddle Learning. That's B-O-D-D-L-E, a gamified learning platform helping millions of kids build confidence in both math and literacy, and I think science as well. We'll talk about that. She's passionate about making learning feel joyful, motivating, and effective for every child. I've wanted to talk to her for quite a while. Edna Martinson, welcome to EdTech Insiders.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm so excited to speak with you. You know, I have been watching the rise of Boddle Learning. It's this amazing platform. You combine incredibly fun three-D game characters and experiences with really effective learning and now in multiple subjects, and I've wanted to have you on forever. For those who may not yet know about Boddle Learning, tell us what you do and what the Boddle Learning story has been like so far.

Yeah. So Boddle Learning is a gamified platform for kindergarten through sixth grade kiddos, and it helps them practice and master skills in math, English, and science through interactive three-D gameplay. And we've got a teacher and parent portal as well that helps educators facilitate learning better, track student progress, help to differentiate the learning on the back end as well while kids get to really dive into a really engaging platform.

Yeah. And I feel like the engagement is the hook, and then you go, but you, you do so much else as