5 Resources Review
Quizizz.com IXL.com teacher.desmos.com Goguardian.com Mathspace.co Quizizz.comCost: $0
Platforms: Mobile/Browser Content Grade Levels: all - Pre-K to College How much advertisement? 5 - None How user friendly? 4 - Quizizz has a few tricks with the advanced features, but in general it is easy to get started building and assigning practice quizizz for students. How well does this resource engage learners in higher-level thinking? 3 - The questions can only be single-answer or multi-select so there isn't room for other types of advance response. Images and other media can be used in questions and answers, but the difficulty of the questions is based on how well the teachers have written them. How well does this resource implement research on teaching and learning mathematics? 3 - Again, as with the writing of the questions themselves, this comes down how well the teacher builds and uses the quizizz. There is no inherent research-based assignments, but quizizz are flexible and can be used to support research-based lessons. How well does this product allow monitoring of learning progress? 3 - Students can be monitored for success while they are taking a specific quizizz and reports can be made after students complete it. The report can be analyzed for most missed questions and most common incorrect answers to help guide future instruction. How well does this product allow differentiation of levels of difficulty of the mathematics presented to learners? 4 - It is very easy to create multiple quizizz of different difficulty levels with little extra effort. However, students would have to choose their levels or be assigned levels by their teachers, the website cannot be computer adaptive. What is the quality of the instruction/navigation provided? 0 - There is no instruction inherent to the website. How well does this resource address a wide range of math topics? 5 - There are thousands of quizizz on all levels of math work. IXL.comCost: $20/month for all 4 core subjects for one student; $10/month for just math. However, lower prices can be negotiated when buying the product for large groups of students.
Platforms: Mobile/Browser Content Grade Levels: all - Pre-K to Calculus How much advertisement? 5 - None How user friendly? 4 - Students can easily get started and shows their progress. From the instructor side there are a few things that make it challenging as far as finding the right reports and seeing student progress, but lots of information is available if the instructor is able to use it. How well does this resource engage learners in higher-level thinking? 4 - Questions increase in difficulty as students show success, but responses are limited to imputing values or selecting items on a graph. How well does this resource implement research on teaching and learning mathematics? 4 - Topics are computer adaptive to ensure students understand the easier questions before giving more challenging ones. When students miss a question, it provides a detailed explanation about how the problem is solved so students can improve on the next question. How well does this product allow monitoring of learning progress? 4 - Lots of student data is available to instructors including missed questions, how long students took to complete topics, current success, etc. IXL.com can also recommend topics based on student weakness to help students make progress. How well does this product allow differentiation of levels of difficulty of the mathematics presented to learners? 4 - The computer adaptive assignments are appropriate for all levels. The drawback is that student data is held from year to year, so it is difficult to assign topics from different grade levels that students may have already completed or may need to complete in coming years. What is the quality of the instruction/navigation provided? 4 - No videos, but there are complete instructions following each question. How well does this resource address a wide range of math topics? 5 - There are thousands of IXL topics and questions on all levels of math work. Teacher.desmos.comCost: $0
Platforms: Mobile/Browser Content Grade Levels: Elementary to Calculus but more content available for Algebra to Calculus then for lower grade levels. How much advertisement? 5 - None How user friendly? 3 - Difficulty and ease of use is lesson specific. Some are well-designed for student understanding, others are more challenging. How well does this resource engage learners in higher-level thinking? 4 - There are lots of resources that can be made in Desmos lessons with challenging questions and different types of student responses, but it is all based on how teachers write the lessons - some are better than others. How well does this resource implement research on teaching and learning mathematics? 3 - Again, as with the writing of the lessons themselves, this comes down how well the teacher builds and uses the lessons. Some can be engaging and research-based, others not so much. How well does this product allow monitoring of learning progress? 3 - Students can be monitored as they complete the given task, but teacher would have to analyze learning progress - no inherent analysis exists within the program. How well does this product allow differentiation of levels of difficulty of the mathematics presented to learners? 2 - it is more difficult with this product to provide different types of assignments for students. Different types of questions could be created within the lessons, but it is not as simple to assign different questions to different students. What is the quality of the instruction/navigation provided? 3 - There are some excellent discover-based lessons available but there are others that are not as well written. It would be up to the teacher to select and modify appropriate lessons for their classroom. How well does this resource address a wide range of math topics? 4 - There are lots of topics available but not as many choices within the topics as other websites have. Goguardian.com |
Cost: Negotiable based on number of students purchased for, Our school purchased for $7-8 per student.
Platform: Chromebooks Content Grade Levels: All Note: This is not a math content product, rather it is a chromebook monitoring software. However, this has been such a tremendous asset to teaching in my classroom that I couldn't pass on reviewing it. How much advertisement? 5 - None How user friendly? 4 - There are a few tricks to learn but there are helpful instructional videos and the live customer service is good. How well does this resource engage learners in higher-level thinking? 4 - Goguardian allows me to see what my students are doing on my chromebooks at all times. I can quickly control "Page Locked - Eyes Forward" to keep students focused, or I can shut down tabs for specific students who are off task. I can see and restrict what tabs are open so that students stay on task. Having this software improves all the other math software we use because I know that students are actually on task and not distracted. Higher level thinking goes up when they're focused on the topic. How well does this resource implement research on teaching and learning mathematics? 4 - Obviously this isn't math specific, but there is a tremendous amount of research that shows multi-tasking is not effective so this reduces students' temptation to do other things while they should be focused on math. How well does this product allow monitoring of learning progress? 4 - This doesn't show how students are learning specific topics, but I can watch their progress on any digital platform so I can see if they get stuck and need help. How well does this product allow differentiation of levels of difficulty of the mathematics presented to learners? N/A What is the quality of the instruction/navigation provided? N/A How well does this resource address a wide range of math topics? N/A Mathspace.coCost: Negotiable based on number of students purchased for,
Platform: Mobile/Browser Content Grade Levels: 4thish- Calculus How much advertisement? 5 - None How user friendly? 3 - The basic interface is fairly easy to understand and there are good instructional tutorials for students and instructors, but there are some annoying quirks that we have learned as we've used it. How well does this resource engage learners in higher-level thinking? 3 - There are some excellent higher level questions but teachers can't always see the types of questions that are being given to students which can lead to frustrating assignments. How well does this resource implement research on teaching and learning mathematics? 4 - This website does a good job ensuring students follow up on missed questions, provides good hints, and allowing students to show their work. How well does this product allow monitoring of learning progress? 4 - Teachers can see progress of specific students and can see how students did overall on specific questions. However, sometimes in an effort to create challenging questions they stray from the initial topic. How well does this product allow differentiation of levels of difficulty of the mathematics presented to learners? Students can be assigned separate topics and there are "adaptive" tasks, but the topics move quickly and it can be difficult when instructors assign them to know exactly what students will see. What is the quality of the instruction/navigation provided? 5 - the videos and textbook are good resources with well laid out topics. How well does this resource address a wide range of math topics? 4 - There are many wide ranging topics, but they are not always presented in the same way most American math is presented. |