TOPs Balance By PassTask, LLC Has Knowledge Bursts! @PassTask

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of TOPs Balance for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

My children are pretty typical children nowadays.  They would be more than happy to hang out on their electronic devices for hours on end.  However, getting them to choose educational activities can be a bit of a challenge.  I have been desperately searching for some sort of assistance to allow them to have their fun, while also sneaking in some educational components.  I can best explain it like this:  When my son wants me to play baseball with him – but I want him to do his homework – here is what we do…  I will pitch him 5 balls but before I pitch the 6th – he must answer two homework questions.  Then we move on for the next 5 pitches and so forth and so on…

This TOPs Balance app is one of the coolest apps I have seen in a really long time.  I have tried different types of monitoring apps or apps to lock up the devices etc… But they never really did what I wanted.  I really just wanted my kids to spend at least some of the time learning something or doing something “academic”.  Well their definition of learning something is very different than mine and I have been very unhappy with their technology addiction.

Now when the kids logon to their devices – they are prompted to complete a 10 second Knowledge Burst.  I can choose to set it as Optional Delivery or Mandatory Delivery.  I see no reason at all to not set it at mandatory.  The kids may argue with me but they won’t argue with the device telling them they need to complete it.  There is no reason to argue about it anymore – they know they just need to complete the Knowledge Burst.

I can upload an encouragement photo for them.

Each profile is personalized with the child’s name, grade, etc…

And this is the initial screen but once the Knowledge Bursts are completed – progress appears.

CNN Story: http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/03/health/teens-cell-phone-addiction-parents

• “Half of teens think they’re addicted to their smartphones”
• A new poll that confirms just how much teens depend on their phones give me an even more to worry about.
• Fifty percent of teens feel they are attached to their mobile devices, according to the poll, which was conducted for Common Sense Media a nonprofit focused on helping children, parents, teachers and policymakers negotiate media and technology.  A large number of parents, 59%, said their teens were addicted.  The poll involved 1,240 interviews with parents and their children, ages 12 to 18.

NBC News Story http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/screen-addiction-is-taking-a-toll-on-children/

• According to NBC News, teens spend nine hours a day in front of screens and children ages 8-12 spend six hours^.1 To address this growing issue, TOPs balances mobile device overuse with bursts of knowledge delivered throughout the day, every time a user seeks to unlock their device.
• ¹Teens Spending ‘Astounding’ Nine Hours a Day in Front of Screens, by Maggie Fox and Erika Edwards, NBC NEWS

Material ranges from moments in history to vocabulary and science, all combined with dramatic imagery and drawn from partnerships with content leaders such as Encyclopedia Britannica, Merriam Webster and Getty Images. The iOS version of TOPs also features an “audio read” function.

I would much rather have my kids spending real time with the pets – dog and horses.  But if they are going to be on a device – then they are now required to learn something! They totally need to get over their cell phone addiction.

The app is available in both the App Store and the Google Play Store for just $2.99.