On-Line Tools for Math

In the past few blogs, I have discussed various methods and ideas to help students achieve math oriented goals.  In this post, I hope to share some websites that I find useful for elementary students.

1. This is a link to a whole group of on-line games.  http://www.rakisradresources.com/2012/07/top-10-math-websites-for-elementary.html .  It gives a brief description of the game and targeted math goals.  One I explored below was made up by teachers in Oswego School District.

2.  http://resources.oswego.org/games/  This has wonderful, easy to use, and typically very engaging math games to reinforce simple topics like basic addition.  It's free and you can readily navigate the table of listed activities to find what your elementary student may need to learn.  I played a game called Ghostblaster II and played a cute (and easy to understand game) where ghosts appeared with two numbers on their "bodies".  I had to click the z button whenever the target sum (say 9) appeared.  My 6 year-old son played it and found it to be "okay".

3.  Another site I found from Raki's Resources (see #1) was http://www.coolmath-games.com/1-number-games-01.html.  This site had many games to explore and I again went to check out the simple addition games.  The one I chose was Brainie, the first "level" had me identify simple addition problems as well as numbers.  It was fun as their was a speed component to it.

Overall, there are wonderful resources available for free on-line to help students meet their math goals! 

Techmatrix - Amazing Tool for finding Math Apps/Programs for students with various special needs

In the last few posts, I have discussed various ways to help students with disabilities meet their goals related to math.  This post will discuss an incredible search engine that allows parents, educators and others to put in a variety of specific reference criteria (e.g. type of disability, age of student) and it then offers a series of suggested assistive technology options.  These options typically include the price, what it can do, the age range for which it can be used and a link for easy further exploration.

I decided to research programs that might be of use for early elementary students.  I put in two disability categories: orthopedic impairment and specific learning disability.  The TECHMATRIX came up with 15 options and of those I chose four to compare.  Of those four, not one met both disability category needs and only one was for orthopedic impairment.  What this showed me was I had to keep plugging away but it was not cumbersome at all as I could just check off other options.

While no one program ended up being "specific" to the criteria that I put in, I decided to look into NEO 2 a portable computer that has a variety of apps.  It has tools and programs for both writing and math and might be a good tool as it serves two separate functions.  To the right, is a photo one.

In conclusion, this search engine  http://techmatrix.org/product-search is truly a formidable tool that one can use to narrow down tools to help students find assistive technology to meet their IEP goals

Low Tech and Mid Tech Adaptions for Teaching Math

I have discussed many high-tech apps that can aid students who have trouble achieving math goals for a variety of reasons.  This post focuses on low and mid-tech adaptations that can help students.

1. Onion Mountain Technology has tools like a manipulative number line and laminated addition and multiplication tables.   Here's a link to some of the manipulatives they sell: http://www.onionmountaintech.com/category.php?i=87

One interesting low-tech tool for students with perhaps limited fine motor control is their finger-grip ruler.  It's raised edge, gives a student more ability to hold onto the ruler and keep it steady. 







2. A talking calculator can help students with learning disabilities check their work as every keystroke is read aloud.   The one below costs $19 and can easily be incorporated to help a student.  http://www.especialneeds.com/speech-and-communication-communication-devices-talking-calculator.html?utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=CaptivaFeed



Source: Dell, A; Newton, G and Petroff, J.  (2012).  Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experience of Students with Disabilities. Pearson Education.

Educational Apps that teach Math Concepts, Skills and Problem Solving

In the  past three posts, I have discussed how a variety of apps can support students with meeting IEP goals, addressing automaticity and with helping those with visual-spatial and/or fine motor challenges.  Still, in order for students to become effective math problem solvers, students must also develop a conceptual understanding of math principles.  Often times all students benefit through the use of manipulatives (like blocks for counting); these types of learning tools are now also available virtually!

One terrific resource is the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives that is maintained by Utah State University.  It has a lot of options for users including basic numbers/operations to more sophisticated math tools like algebra and geometry.  It is also leveled pre-K through grader 12.  Unfortunately, despite saying they have a free version; I could not download it.

Another possible resource is Internet 4 Classrooms.  This is free (yeah!) and has resources from pre-K through 8th grade.  There are wonderful activities to help students learn (with visuals) key concepts.  This is a link to the Kindergarten resources: http://www.ixl.com/math/kindergarten
This site also has a reader.  Here's a screenshot of a Kindergarten problem that is available:

Source: Dell, A; Newton, G and Petroff, J.  (2012).  Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experience of Students with Disabilities. Pearson Education.

 

Technology math-related tools that address visual spatial or motor control difficulties

Math apps can also help meet the needs of students that have trouble writing, aligning digits and creating visual representations (e.g. an angle).  This is often due to a lack of fine motor control or visual spatial challenges.  Apps that minimize handwriting demands, can be very helpful for both of these types of student.

For example, an app called MathPad Plus.  It costs about $100 and is able to be used on all types of computers (e.g. PCs and MACs).  It helps students who have trouble working with pen and paper due to difficulty with fine motor skills, those who need speech output, those who need help aligning digits properly, those who need immediate feedback and those who are more engaged when on a computer.  While it does not have a lot of "bells and whistles"; it seems practical and useful for helping students solve addition, subtraction, division and multiplication problems.  Also, it has options for viewing problems using pie charts, fraction bars and decimal grids which can aide student understanding of the math problem.

Source: Dell, A; Newton, G and Petroff, J.  (2012).  Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experience of Students with Disabilities. Pearson Education.

Educational Applications that address Automaticity aka Math Fact Fluency

In the last post, I discussed how to think about whether an educational application would help meet a student's IEP goals.  This post focuses on one specific type of skill - automaticity which is also called math fact fluency.  This essentially is the ability of a student to quickly, accurately and effortlessly process math content information.

Typically by 3rd grade, students are expected to have fluency with addition and subtraction; by 5th grade they are expected to have it with whole number multiplication and division.  For many students it is difficult to meet these benchmarks and particularly for those with disabilities.  Students may have trouble transferring math facts to long term memory, they may have difficulty retrieving math facts quickly, and some may never achieve complete fluency.

Therefore, technology tools (can be low to high tech) can help them compensate for the lack in automaticity.  One specific tool I found to be interesting was Timez Attack (from http://www.bigbrainz.com/).  There's a over-the-top video that describes the benefits of this game; but essentially it uses a high-tech video game environment to teach basic math fluency with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  It certainly would be helpful for a student with fluency issues who loves to video game!  Below are a sampling of the game's graphics.



Source: Dell, A; Newton, G and Petroff, J.  (2012).  Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experience of Students with Disabilities. Pearson Education.

Questions to Consider When selecting Educational Applications to meets student's goals for Math

I am continuing my exploration of how best to determine and implement AT for students in my classroom.  Though I do not teach math, this post helps establish general guidelines for determining how to select applications to helps meet a student's IEP goals.

One question to consider is what should the application achieve?  Is it meant to strengthen math skills with respect to problem solving or is it more to develop speed and accuracy?  So for example, if it's meant to build problem solving skills, does the app give actual feedback that explains a problem or does it merely state if the problem is correct or incorrect?  Finally, the IEP team should consider whether traditional tools like manipulatives would meet the goal instead, if so then an app should be disregarded.  On the other hand, if the student using the app increases his/her participation in class; then it could be a useful tool.

Below is a list of detailed questions that the team could use to determine if an app is appropriate for meeting a student's goals.

Source: Dell, A; Newton, G and Petroff, J.  (2012).  Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experience of Students with Disabilities. Pearson Education.