Finding Good Sites!!!

Throughout this project, I've been constantly looking for good sites, that are user friendly (for students and teachers), easy to access and hopefully free. I have been posting links, to the right, of some sites that I have found, which is not extremely long.

What should you look for what trying to find good virtual manipulatives?

According to Judy Donovan and The Center for Implementing Technology in Education you should consider

• Can the level of difficulty be adjusted for different students?
• What type of feedback so they provide?
• Will teachers need to provide feedback or support?
• How clear are the instruction for use?

For me when I was searching, I found a lot of the sites confusing to use, and I felt that students might get a little lost in what to do and end up just "playing" and not seeing the connection to the math concept. So testing out the site and trying to complete some of the problems is a sure way to see if it the virtual manipulative you are looking for!

There are a lot of math sites, however they lean towards games and drill activities. Actual manipulation of math manipulatives was harder to find, and most often they linked back to NLVM activities, or notebook activities for the SMARTBoard.

Angela

Donovan, Judy (2008): Teaching Mathematics with Virtual Manipulatives: Educators eZone. Retrieved November 5, 201. From Tech & Learning website: http://www.techlearning.com/article/teaching-mathematics-with-virtual-manipulatives/45397