Have you ever worried about all the fun apps available to kids with iPhones becoming a distraction, or wished that you could interrupt your student’s game of Angry Birds with something more educational? Well, wish no more. Timely Tutor, a recent app developed by the company of the same name, is designed to help teachers and parents intersperse fun with educational practice. The app was designed by John Pashales, a father of five whose children frequently used his devices during the day.

“As a dad,” he said during a recent interview, “I was worried that they weren’t taking the time they needed to learn. They like Minecraft, and I don’t mind, but playing for hours and hours…couldn’t be good for them.”

The main idea behind Timely Tutor is that a teacher or parent can set up quizzes that ‘interrupt’ whatever activity is currently happening on the device. The student using the device must then successfully complete the quiz before they can return to other apps. This turns the games on the device into a form of positive enforcement, rather than a distraction—the child must learn, in order to go back to playing.

The adult logging into the device’s administrator account can create multiple user accounts with unique passcodes, with each user representing a different student.  Administrators can also set individual settings for each user. For example, upon trying out the app, I created two users, and was able to differentiate the number of questions, quiz frequency, and the quiz contents for each student.  I was even able to set the required pass rate for each student at different levels—which is a great feature for teachers who may have to consider differentiation.

Administrators can purchase individual modules of questions for $0.99 per module. Quizzes are generated from randomly selected questions within the module, which are large enough (about 100 questions each) to avoid quick repetition.

The modules currently available are made of questions pulled from a wide variety of courses, including National Geographic, and are designed with both the Common Core and multiple state standards in mind. The modules also range in difficulty from Kindergarten to 6^th grade.

“We wanted an app that could follow a student for a long time and in a lot of places,” says John Pashales, the CEO of Timely Tutor, LLC. “A student moving to another state can use it to help them prepare and catch up to a curriculum different from the one they’re used to.”

Personally, my favorite modules are the English ones—ranging from kindergarten to 4^th grade, they also include tricks such as reading comprehension and spelling that result in a lot of variety.

In order to trigger Timely Tutor’s signature feature, the administrator must first set an active user from their account before handing the device to the user. From that point, the timer kicks in, and alerts the person using the iPad that it’s time to take a quiz after a certain point. To reset the timer, the user must log in with their PIN, and pass the quiz.
(One recommendation from the app’s home company: When setting up the app, go into settings and change the method it uses to send reminders to Alert. This will set the app so that it will keep interrupting the user’s current activity until they go to Timely Tutor and take the quiz.)

It is worth noting that ‘pass’ is the key phrase here: If the student doesn’t pass the test, the app won’t move on until the student has re-taken the quiz successfully. Future versions of the app may include hints or a tutoring function to help streamline this, but it is not currently available.

While the app seems to be initially designed for parents, it does have some functionality in the classroom. Teachers with students who have access to iPhones or iPads can use the app as a method of administering homework assignments, or for structuring free periods in a way that encourages learning between activities. The app’s Admin mode also allows the teacher to see a student’s progress on each quiz they’ve taken, as well as any questions the student is particularly struggling with.

Mr. Pashales has big plans for the future of Timely Tutor. In addition to eventually allowing teachers to create their own modules (currently the app’s home company has to approve each proposed module before adding it to the Market), they plan on adding functions that will allow admins and users alike to see how their progress compares to either state or national standards.

“We want to make the app more accessible for everyone,” he said.

The company is also wonderfully responsive to customer feedback- When I was having an issue with the Admin Mode locking up, I contacted them with their email form. My issue was solved within a couple of days, and now the app works better than ever.

I’m personally excited to see the directions Timely Tutor takes in the future. With more modules added into the market and a strong focus on engagement and limiting loopholes to get around taking the quizzes, this app could be invaluable in turning the fun parts of having an iPhone from a distraction to a tool.