Making stuff work
Posted by Cathy Tran on Wed, Oct 14, 2009 @ 08:45 AM
I’m Cathy. I’m invading the “Math Hub” with some thoughts of my own.
So, who am I? Officially, the sign
on my cubicle says I’m the Producer of Formative Evaluation here at Tom Snyder
Productions. When my parents ask me what my new job is, I tell them that I help
make sure educational products do what they are meant to do and withhold the
fancy, scary grown-up title. Ultimately, I’m just someone who likes to convince
others how cool some things are. Through this blog, I hope to give you a glimpse
of how educators and kids are helping us develop a math product and why that
feedback loop between those folks and our developers is, well,
cool.
I’ve long pondered about the
research that goes into educational toys and products. I remember bouncing
around a story idea about that near the holidays during my newspaper reporting
days. Unfortunately, there was no big toy company in town, so not enough of a
local angle to do such a story. But every time I drove to Los Angeles for figure
skating practice, I’d pass by the Mattel headquarters, sit in traffic, and often
wonder again. Maybe one of these days, I’ll just pop in and be like, “hey, can I
learn about what research you do for your toys?”
Maybe.
:)
In the meantime, I’m going to use
this space to let you in on some stories about our product testing, subject you
to some ramblings I’m sure, and hopefully stir some good conversations. Stay
tuned and join in!