Math Ninja AR

. I watched a few YouTube videos about MathNinja AR and decided to download it on my own personal device. After watching the videos, I had a general idea of how the app worked, but it was not quite as intuitive as I had hoped. When you open the app, there are three options: Start, Collection, and a button that is completely in a different language that did nothing when I pressed it. Why is it there? The start button when pressed takes you to the next set of options: level of difficulty and then you choose your environment. There were no instructions of how to answer questions or how to select the options. It was mostly trial and error for me, but eventually I figured it out. For my first try, I chose easy math and what looked to be the easiest course. The camera opens, and you must have a blank space in the room in front of you for the game to construct itself. The math problem appears in the rotating banner in the clouds, and the people of the village have numbers floating over their heads. You choose the correct number and it takes you to the next problem. One difficulty I had was not being able to see the problem. When I opened my camera, I was sitting in a chair and it had me located in the clouds. I had to physically get on the floor in order to see and select my answer. When I finished the 10 questions, I was automatically taken back to the main menu. I was not told how many I missed (I missed a few on purpose) or given any sort of rewards for the ones I got correct. If the students (or even me as the teacher) can’t see the questions missed, how is this app to be educational? How can they learn from it? Overall, the idea for the app is a good one, but the actual follow through is not great.

Love this. Brilliant

This app has an interesting concept of requiring you to move around in order to find the answers to math problems. Unfortunately, there is no in-app documentation, so it's not at all obvious what you're supposed to do when you start the app. The developer's notes in the app store's detailed description provide some guidance, but they don't provide all the info that I'd like to know. Sometimes the placement of the AR village isn't quite right in order to easily navigate around it.