Eleven years ago I started working with distance learning students whose families had chosen to teach their children at home. Many of these families were barely comfortable sending an email, and as an educator, I was figuring out how to use technology to meet the needs of my students. We were all at the beginning of a huge learning curve.
Specifically related to mathematics, I sought out online resources with hopes to provide opportunity for students to practice learned math skills in a varied process using such tools as Mathletics, CTC Math, and IXL Math. Although all well-developed resources, typically only about twenty percent of my students would readily engage in these types of online activities at any one time; most families would much rather work with hands-on activities or paper-based curriculum. These math practice sites are mainly skill and drill based, or contain step-by-step problems that require formulaic processes. I wonder if a more problem solving, inquiry based technology tools such as Dragonbox were offered, if students would be more eager to participate?
Questions:
- For my younger students, mathematical resources have been considered as supplementary to a core curriculum. At a higher level, could mathematical concepts be effectively taught and learned solely through an online tool, or is the need to verbally discuss, visually represent and use tactile exploration a required aspect of fully understanding mathematical skills and concepts?
- What inquiry mathematics apps and online resources are available to encourage students in creative problem solving and inquiry based learning?