Ed Tech Review » Learning Software

iPod Touch In the Classroom

MrYardley — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:41:22 +0000

The iPod has already had an impact on the education community, but the advent of the iPod Touch shows particular promise as a tool that could significantly improve the classroom. iPods are a great way to deliver media contents to students to give extra review and practice to the students that need it. The iPod touch takes it beyond the basic viewing and listening of media to add applications. From using Internet resources, to communication applications it puts a vast amount of resources in the hands of teachers and students.
In June Apple will release another update for the iPod Touch that will allow you to add a wide variety of applications to your ipod touch. Although I can only speculate I would expect to see grade management, student management, and educational programs very soon after that. This new expansion makes the iPod Touch a viable and valuable classroom tool.

The 10 Best Math Activity Pages

MrYardley — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:30:19 +0000

There are many great sites out there for better teaching students about math skills. Here are a few
of the best sites I’ve found and use on a regular basis. I must admit I have not visited all of the
math sites on the web, so to say they are the 10 Best Math Sites on the Web may be a stretch, but
they are the 10 Best Math Activity sites that I have found so far. If you have a site that you think
should be mentioned please leave a comment and share.

Enjoy the Ten Best Math activity pages!

http://www.aplusmath.com/ – The A+ Math site helps students learn mathematics
interactively with a mathematics game room, flashcards, and practice sheets.
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/ – Coolmath4kids is a colorful Web site (how did they
make that dangly cursor?!) that has fun mathematics activities for children and adults age
3 and up.
http://www.edinformatics.com/kids_teens/kt_math.htm – Edinformatics: Information for
the Information Age offers many links to online mathematics sites for instruction, practice,
and games. Descriptors tell the age level (kids, teens, mature teens) of each site.
http://www.figurethis.org/index.html – Figure This! Math Challenges for Families has a
teacher’s kit complete with a PowerPoint presentation and blackline masters to introduce
this series of family problem-solving mathematics challenges to parents. The grade levels
of the activities range from grades 1 through 6.
http://www.kcw.org/reprek6.htm – This site has resource links for parents and educators
of children grades pre-K to 6.
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/technology/babbitt_math_tips.html – This site
presents 10 tips for selecting mathematics instruction software for students with learning
disabilities.
http://mathforum.org/arithmetic/arith.software.html – The Math Forum @ Drexel Web
site offers arithmetic software or sites, some for purchase, some for downloading; other
lists of links; and descriptions of the programs.
http://matti.usu.edu/nlvm/nav/index.html – This virtual library of interactive
manipulatives for interactive mathematics for pre-K to grade 12 comes from Utah State
University.
http://www.netn.net/14113.htm – This site has many interesting science, early education,
activity, and organization links for elementary school teachers and for parents of
elementary children. Some of the sites are free and some charge a fee for their materials.
http://www.kidsnumbers.com —The Exciting Math Website For Kids providesmath
skills development programs are research based, and seem to work well.

Elementary Advantage 2007 Review

MrYardley — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 18:08:00 +0000

What it is:
Elementary Advandace is a collection of various educational software that covers a wide variety of subjects. Each subject has it’s own disc and application for ten applications in all. The applications in general seem somewhat primitive, but are effective.
What it’s not:
It is not a well thought out learning system where programs are tied together in an easily manageable system. It is not even interlinked in it’s tracking system so that monitoring progress is a tedious task.

My Opinion:
Elementary Advantage 2007 is a reasoably priced collection of software, but because of the dated programs, and the lack of interactivity between the applications it is not a bargain. The 2007 on the box basically means that they reprinted the box from the 2006 version, but it appears that there are no significant upgrades to the software, with the exception of the encyclopedia. I purchased this product and for the price am satisfied, but hoped for much more.