- The following is content from the press release -
(Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Yasunobu Hashimoto; hereinafter referred to as Digika), developer of Sorotouch, announces that it will start offering Sorotouch courses from December 2023 at Lanjiku Amstelveen, which is operated by Lanjiku (Representative: Chie Arita, The Netherlands). Lanjiku is the first school to introduce Sorotouch in the Netherlands, bringing the number of Sorotouch classrooms in 16 countries and regions around the world.
Sorotouch is a new way for children to learn how to do abacus using a tablet in a short period of time and in a fun way. The Sorotouch classroom supports students' continued learning by combining the Sorotouch application, which enables students to efficiently acquire high mental arithmetic skills through a curriculum optimized for each student, with a classroom experience that includes output activities for calculations.
Local Educational Situation
Amstelveen is home to many international families and a variety of international schools. It is also home to many of the students who attend the Japanese school in Amsterdam. There is a growing demand from students attending these schools to study mathematics for a smooth transition to the Japanese school system after returning to their home country and to prepare for entrance exams and transfer exams.
On the other hand, the Dutch educational system flexibly incorporates grade retention and grade-skipping, and emphasizes education tailored to students' individual abilities. However, education for calculation skills is not emphasized as much as other subjects, and the decline in calculation skills upon graduation from high school has become an issue in education.
In this educational environment, Ran Juku is launching a new class to help students better understand and enjoy mathematics by introducing the "Sorotouch" program, which combines the fun of abacus with improved computational skills. In doing so, we aim to help students build a strong foundation for success in the international community.
Background to the introduction of Sorotouch at Lan Juku
At Ran Juku, which teaches math and arithmetic to students from infants to university students, we believe that there are two important things in math and arithmetic.
The ability to think carefully, which leads to the enjoyment of mathematics
The ability to perform calculations with ease, which is helpful to think carefully.
When we offered math and abacus classes for enrolled students, many parents expected their children to be able to memorize the abacus, but it was difficult for them to master the ability to memorize the abacus. Against this background, we were experimenting with teaching methods when we came across Sorotouch and first thoroughly examined it together with the staff of the school. We also had our students use the application on a trial basis. We were impressed by the way the students were learning how to use the application through trial and error, which was a major factor in our decision to introduce it immediately. The staff also quickly adapted to the fun activities to improve their mental math skills and determined that the children had the potential to find enjoyment and pleasure in learning math every day. We believe it will be a great way to promote children's enthusiasm for learning and help them learn abacus-style mental arithmetic in an effective and fun way.
*Photographs show a hybrid format in which students participating from both classrooms and online can take classes as one.
Local teacher introductions.Atsuko Yamamoto
Born in Zushi City, Kanagawa Prefecture. D. in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Tokyo. After working as a part-time lecturer at a university and staying at MIT and the University of Freiburg, she moved to the Netherlands when she got married.
Lanjak school Amstelveen contact information
Address: Ouderkerkerlaan 15, 1185 AB Amstelveen, SAKB Valkhof (2nd floor of NEMO Tea House)
Access information URL: https://www.ashitamirai.org/access/access-amstelveensakb/
Phone number: +31-6-4646-6795
Mail:atorie.suugaku@gmail.com
URL: https://www.ashitamirai.org/course/math-forkids-sorotouch/
For inquiries about opening an abacus touch school, please contact us here.
https://www.sorotouch.jp/company/lp-partner/
What is Sorotouch?
Sorotouch" is a new method of learning abacus-type mental arithmetic using a tablet, which allows students to learn abacus-type mental arithmetic quickly, efficiently, and in a fun way.
If a child between the ages of 5 and 8 advances through "Sorotouch" every day, he or she will acquire an advanced level of abacus-style mental arithmetic that will become a lifelong asset in two years. By learning the four arithmetic rules in a well-balanced manner, "seeing and hearing" and "solving", the ability to read and understand numbers improves, and practical mental arithmetic skills that are useful not only in arithmetic but also in daily life are acquired.
Sorotouch helps children develop self-confidence and a growth mindset (the idea that they can grow through experience and effort) through experiences that develop their abilities from an early age, and lays the foundation for all learning!
Sorotouch (Digika Corporation) Results (excerpt)
- Grand Prize, the pinnacle of the Japan e-Learning Awards (2017)
- Winner of the Kids Design Award (2018)
- First Japanese company selected as a finalist in the SXSW EDU Launch Competition (2019)
- Selected by METI and JETRO for the "Classroom of the Future" overseas development support project (2020)
aim
The "Sorotouch Classroom System," which includes Sorotouch (an application for students), Sororoom (an application for facilitators), and Sorohome (a CMS management tool), was created through trial and error in the classroom and at home to reward students for their efforts and to keep them motivated. It is a learning system that synchronizes the classroom (offline learning) and Sorotouch (online learning).
Changing roles of classrooms and teachers
Since all inputs are completed in Sorotouch, which is worked on at home, the classroom functions as a place of complete output. The SORO-TOUCH classroom system allows the teacher, regardless of his or her knowledge or skill in mental arithmetic, to enjoy facilitating a classroom full of children and to maintain and improve the students' motivation.
Parent and Teacher Perspectives
In the development process, the wishes of the parents for their classrooms and the requests of the teachers onsite were put into shape one by one. Parents and teachers discussed how to push the children's motivation switches, and we included a variety of fun functions and a degree of freedom that would allow the on-site teachers to express their own colors, because each child is different, and realized a system in the classroom where children can output while enjoying the excitement and thrill of learning.
effect
During the time of directly operated abacus schools, the achievement to the advanced level of abacus-type memorization was about 101 TP6T in 4 years (2014), but after the introduction of abacus touch, more than 62% of graduates of directly operated schools reached the advanced level of memorization in 2018.
We have demonstrated the learning effects of our patented Sorotouch technology based on learning history data and presented a research paper at an international conference (ICIET2020).
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[Evaluation of Mental Calculation Educational System with Invisible Abacus]
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3395245.3396417
