Each Jasper episode is a narrative adventure situated in a real life context. Students learn a bit about the context and then are presented with a complex multi-step problem to solve. Jasper is responding to the needs to increase student motivation in learning math and to help students solve complex problems (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1992b). These are currently issues given math anxiety and the challenges with seeing how abstract concepts can be applied in the real world. The materials have a constructivist design that leverage:
- generative thinking: students apply their current knowledge and skills to problem solve a more complex challenge
- anchored instruction: situated in a specific context, students identify subproblems and work towards solving them. The real context allows students to connect to additional resources to solve their problems.
- cooperative learning: working in groups, students for communities or inquiry to solve the problems (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt, 1992b)
Compared to other video lessons (e.g., Khan Academy, Crash Course, BBC Learn, Academic Earth), Jasper is more about assessment rather than instruction. Making videos is expensive so if the same material could be captured in a .pdf, then it should be done through this method. Although these videos can be engaging due to the incorporation of multimedia, in the end, many are just lecture captures. Direct instruction is not necessarily bad, but the affordances of video should be leveraged. The closest thing I’ve seen to Jasper is the TED-Ed math videos. In these videos, students are presented with a riddle and told to pause the video before they get the full solution. If teachers are looking to create interactive videos with embedded assessment, H5P and EDpuzzle are options. With the TED-Ed videos, there is the opportunity for assessment but this depends on the user to pause the video and try on their own.
I think what makes Jasper successful is its assessment and community centred approach. The assessments are rich and can connect students to real life problems. However, video is not necessarily required to do this. For example, around this time last year, the Chuck E. Cheese pizza recycling controversy arose. One of my math teacher friends took this as an opportunity to explore the controversy using proportional reasoning. However, it’s difficult to connect higher level math (e.g., calculus) to real world contexts. In cases like this, it’s useful to link to resources like Jasper and CEMC. Connecting math to everyday life makes me think of creating math trails and creating more project based assessments.
Overall, I think Jasper can definitely be useful, although teachers will need to address the challenges connected to language that will arise. In terms of teachers creating their own DIY Jasper adventures, I think we will need to re-think our current approach to assessment and evaluation before we make such an expensive commitment.
References
Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt (1992b). The Jasper series as an example of anchored instruction: Theory, program, description, and assessment data. Educational Psychologist, 27(3), 291-315.