Each week, a member of our class will find an online educational module and evaluate it in terms of design and digital media applications using the WBI rubric provided in Blackboard. Then post his or her findings as a post to this blog. The rest of us will come to this blog to visit and post our comments to the original weekly evaluation of the instructional multimedia products.
Please bear with me...this is my first time to try a blog post.
ReplyDeleteReviewer: Katharyn Daniel
Instructional website reviewed: http://www.sumdog.com/
Basic facts:
• This website is free.
• It uses games to make math fun.
• The games address many math standards (such as ordering numbers, addition, subtraction, doubling, rounding, grouping, multiplication, division, positive and negative numbers, etc).
• This website had almost 2,500,000 registered students at the time of this review (September 4, 2012).
• You need an e-mail address to register for an account as a parent.
• If you are a teacher registering students, you can create student log-ins.
• Teachers can choose to restrict which math skills their students can work on at a given time.
• Teachers and parents can get some free reports on child performance and progress.
• There are extra features available for purchase.
• There are discounts available if you are ordering for an entire grade, school, or district.
• The non-discount price is $2/student/year for 25 students minimum.
• There are built in safety features regulating student interactions.
Kid view: My son saw his big sister playing Sumdog and wanted to play too. So we signed him up for a free account from home. It was too hard for our advanced kindergartener, but he wants to try again now that he is a first grader.
My daughter was in 3rd grade when she was introduced to this website. Her school uses it through their computer classes. They are using it again this year. My daughter played it some over the summer from home and is glad they are getting to play it at school again this year. She says that almost her entire class likes it. Her favorite parts are playing the games with other kids online, advancing in levels, and earning coins so she can customize her Sumdog avatar's clothing and accessories. The only part she doesn't like is when no other kids are online to play against and the game pits her against the Robot.
Parent view: I like that my kids are begging to do math. My daughter played this for over an hour at a time on weekends and over the summer. (Restricted only by how much computer game time I allowed her.) As a parent, the safety features are important to me.
Educator view: The math increases in difficulty as students progress through the games. Students mainly compete against other students of like level but can also compete against those just above and just below their level. From what I have seen, it is not so much teaching the math skills as offering lots of practice. Students do learn some through this process, but some things might need to be introduced in class first for best effect. The free features are very useful. It might be worth buying additional reports. This is a huge help in tailoring math instruction/practice/assessment to many different levels within a single class. The games utilize many instructional strategies including: comparison, sequencing, practice, and specific timely feedback.
So, I guess this is more of a drill-and-practice application of multimedia. And, a good thing is they are using collaborative games to keep kids interested in playing with other kids online. It is great that you do have restricted game time for your kids. They do need to spend time on building other skills that they will need for a life time, e.g., human interaction skills, which might be too hard or sophisticated to simulate through any games really well. :-)
DeleteIn terms of how this compares to the WBI I will be making for this class:
DeleteI do not have any prior experience in designing educational websites and I am only one person (rather than a professional design team). So I will need to craft something much simpler. I could utilize some of the most basic concepts that SumDog uses successfully like: making my WBI free, making learning fun, and specific prompt feedback. I won't be able to create elaborate games. If I am gearing towards students, I should not have live chat/posting options for safety and security.
When I went to the website, I found that it was very entertaining and did not seem like I would be learning math but, instead, playing a game. I watched the information video, and the students also seemed to have the view that the game aspect was their favorite part, not the math. Maybe they don't realize they are using math skills!
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DeleteI teach grades 9-12; however, over 1/4 of my students are below basic in math. Sumdog would be a good tool to utilize to incorporate math into the curriculum for the below-basic students. After playing sumdog myself, I can see where the site would be a motivator for students to immediately log onto the computer and play sumdog during the "Do Now" period, which is the first 10 minutes of class.
Deletept 2 Katharyn's Sumdog review
ReplyDelete1. Objectives clearly stated 5
2. Objectives appropriately sequenced 5
3. Instructional strategies appropriate for the objectives 5
4. Instructional activities/process clearly described 5
5. Tasks adequate/significant for achieving objectives 5
6. Resources adequate/significant for achieving objectives 5
7. Learning achievement adequately evaluated 5
8. Evaluation criteria clearly expressed 5
9. Gaining and maintaining learners' attention 5
10. Relating to learners' interests and goals 5
11. Building on learners' prior knowledge & foreshadowing what the lesson is about 3
12. Providing positive feedback and feeling of accomplishment 5
13. Motivational strategies serve for objectives 5
14. Navigation is clear and easy to access 5
15. Authorship and date clearly stated 3
16. Text follows rules of grammar, spelling and literary composition 5 Score: 76
Authorship is clearly stated, but date is not.
I am not sure how to rate this website for foreshadowing and tying to prior knowledge. In that the math knowledge builds, it does, but I haven't seen an explicit tie-in stated as part of the games.
I score it at 76 out of 80.
I have not seen a better interactive math resource than this website. It seems to be appropriate for 3rd grade- 8th grade. It addresses multiple intelligences (ex. there is a music themed math game where correct answers help you make beautiful music). It is interactive and makes good use of video, audio, static images, and text. It is easy for students to use and students seem to love it.
I would say that the prior knowledge is built into the game. While the game does not know where the learner is at the beginning of the game, the more the learner plays, the more prior knowledge is taken into account. This is basically what a level is--a measure of prior knowledge. I think it works very well for this particular skill set.
DeleteUsually, the calculation for the skill level/prior knowledge and adaptability of the game has already been built into the games with some kind of programming language. They usually leave it up to the teacher or parents to test and decide which level kids might be at and to start with. Sometimes kids play easier games on purpose to win points... Funny psychology.
Delete:-)
My current "Animal Rank" in Sumdog is a brown rat. I want to improve my status, but I need to work on my graduate courses. Sumdog looks great - clean and tidy. Navigation seems simple and straightforward. From the "rank" to the Shop, Sumdog offers extra motivation for students. It looks like the math ranges from simple arithmetic to algebraic expressions. You right, Katharyn, it's good stuff for 3-8 classrooms. I'd like to know what kind of reports you can generate and how many students you can enter using of a free account. Thanks for sharing. Also, I set up a school account for free!
ReplyDeleteLorelai is very proud that she has almost completed Polar Bear rank. :)
DeleteAs a parent, I get a free weekly report by e-mail that states how many questions she has answered and what skills she worked on. I am not sure about free teacher reports or number of students possible...
It does have a few more other rewards, e.g., games, sports add-ons, than the changing clothes options. However, I do agree with you on the "intuitive" design for the "Play" page and the "training" or "table" page.
ReplyDeleteI created a teacher account after reading Katharyn's review. I agree that this site is very clean and I also found it very intuitive. There is a little front-end work that must be done to enter your school, class and students, but not as much as other similar sites. I really like the fact that you can choose local districts to compete with. I also like the national contests you can enter your classes in. The reporting features are very nice. I'm going to explore the site more and probably add it to my livebinder of math sites that I use to train teachers.
ReplyDeleteIf I were a math teacher, it would be beneficial to create a link to homework assignments rather than have students search for the resource. This would be great resource to share with some of my colleagues. Katharyn, can a teacher add 100 students for free? I haven't got that far yet.
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