Parents' Guide to ScootPad

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Common Sense Media Review

Emily Pohlonski By Emily Pohlonski , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 7+

Adaptive, individualized math, reading, and spelling.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 7+?

Any Positive Content?

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Parent and Kid Reviews

age 8+

Based on 4 parent reviews

age 16+

Based on 2 kid reviews

What's It About?

SCOOTPAD is a website that attempts to tie together the various tasks and routines of an elementary school classroom into one online platform. Kids can practice math, reading, and spelling all while receiving immediate feedback. You can assign customized learning paths to kids, then track and reward their progress. The class-wall tool lets kids receive direct messages from their teachers, but parents can view them, too.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say ( 4 ):
Kids say ( 2 ):

ScootPad provides a way for parents to practice skills with their children at home that's directly aligned with what's going on in the classroom. Its cost is much less than some programs like iXL that provide a similar service. However, the quality isn't quite as good.

Practice results show the number correct and incorrect. However, each time a kid gets an answer wrong, the site says, "Oops," and prompts them to try the other multiple-choice option. It doesn't follow up with any additional questions of that same type, so frustrated or bored students can simply click around on the screen until they get through the task. Kids will initially enjoy the fireworks that go off when they finish a quiz correctly, but the novelty will wear off, especially when they realize they can get fireworks with very little effort. Kids get rewarded in the form of coins, which can be used to unlock online games. This system may keep kids on track for a while, but, in the long run, these kind of rewards aren't intrinsically motivating, and kids may lose interest. Additionally, the games, combined with the online math and English practice, can really increase a student's screen time each day. However, the adaptablity of ScootPad's lessons makes it a worthwhile tool that can reach kids at lots of different levels.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about setting goals and making plans to achieve those goals.

  • Families also can talk about the importance of practicing skills to improve them.

  • Looking for more online learning tools? Check out our list of fun and educational websites.

Website Details

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