Forget Everything You Think You Know About EdTech
By Dr. Maya Rose & Lauren Bochicchio Beaver
If you’re an educator, your inbox is likely a graveyard of EdTech promises. Most of these tools follow a predictable script: they take a textbook, digitize it, add some animations and gamification elements, and call it "innovation."
They focus on what a student is learning.
Thynk is different. We don’t focus on the content of learning; we focus on the capacity to learn.
We are not EdTech. We are a Cognitive Training Curriculum.
Educational technology refers to educational curricula, pedagogy, activities, or resources that have been digitized. Traditionally, they are assets that were traditionally paper and pencil that were then digitized or computerized. Thynk is different from educational technology in that its core technology did not stem from a paper and pencil training or activity. It is rather a cognitive training technology that targets, measures, and improves the necessary cognitive skills needed to be academically successful. Unlike other educational technology, it is impossible to have created Skylar’s Run without the required tech components (tablet and AV headset). These tech components allows us to design a platform in which the student can:
- Visualize their attention in real time using the AV headset
- Use this visualization to realize what it feels like to pay attention and subsequently improve it
- Get their attention to a level necessary to train subsequent higher order cognitive skills in an engaging video-game narrative where game mechanics are carefully paired to learning mechanics.
The Engine vs. The Fuel
If traditional EdTech is the fuel (the information), Thynk is the engine tune-up.
- Traditional EdTech asks: "How can we explain this math problem differently?"
- Thynk asks: "Does the student have the inhibitory control to stay focused on this mathematical multi-step process without being distracted?"
- Traditional EdTech asks: "How can we make this reading passage more engaging?"
- Thynk asks: "Does the student have the cognitive flexibility to switch between decoding words and comprehending the narrative flow?"
Why "Curriculum" Matters
We don’t call ourselves a "product" or an "app" because those imply a passive experience. Thynk is a curriculum of the brain. Much like a physical education curriculum builds muscle and cardiovascular health through repetitive, targeted stress, Thynk designs neuroplasticity-based exercises to build "cognitive "muscles."
Our "lessons" aren't about facts; they are about function:
- Focus: The ability to sustain learning.
- Inhibitory Control: The ability to resist impulses and stay on task.
- Cognitive Flexibility: The ability to switch between thinking about two different concepts.
High-Dosage Intervention Without the High-Dosage Cost
In a traditional MTSS or SpEd setting, "high-dosage" intervention usually means more teachers, more small groups, and more FTEs. In today’s labor market, that’s a luxury most districts can’t afford.
Thynk delivers that same high-dosage intensity through our patented curriculum. It’s consistent, it’s evidence-based (ESSA Level 2), and it’s scalable.
The Result? A More "Teachable" Student.
When you stop trying to "tech" your way around a student’s cognitive gaps and start training the brain to close them, everything else changes. The Reading software you already bought starts working better. The Math intervention starts to stick.
Because for the first time, the student doesn't just have the information—they have the capacity to use it.
Traditional academic interventions focus on the content of learning; Thynk focuses on the capacity to learn.