> Amplify (neé Desmos)

It looks like "Amplify Education, Inc" and "Desmos Studio" (Public Benefit Corporation) are separate entities.

The desmos website still shows that most of the Desmos "math tools" still exist under the Desmos name (graphing calculator, scientific calculator, four function, matrix, geometry, 3D), but that "Desmos Classroom" specifically has been renamed to "Amplify Classroom" [1].

The amplify usage guidelines [2] say that "Amplify does not own but partners with Desmos Studio, the maker of a suite of free math tools, including a graphing calculator used by over 75 million people around the world. (See desmos.com for more information.)"

[1]: https://www.desmos.com/

[2]: https://amplify.com/ac-usage-guidelines/

For anyone reading Dan Meyer's blog for the first time, I'd highly recommend you search the archives for an article about a topic you know well. And use that to help you decide how much to trust Dan's opinion on other stuff, and whether his perspective aligns with yours.

He wrote an article heavily criticizing Math Academy's approach here: https://open.substack.com/pub/danmeyer/p/it-is-fun-to-preten...

But there's no evidence that he's tested it with a student in the target market!

He does link to article by Michael Pershan, who did kick the tires, but again, he didn't use it as intended over any reasonable period of time.

Based on their credentials, both Dan and Michael are people you'd hope you could trust if you want to learn about how to teach your kid math. Dan did his PhD at Stanford (under Dr Boaler) and Michael has been a math teacher for years, and has written at least one good book on the topic.

But they each seem to have a knee jerk reaction to anything that hints that it might replace human teachers, or anything that's only useful to a subset of students.