Math Concepts, Math Skills, and Problem Solving Educational Applications

My last blog post focused on educational applications for students that are struggling with visual-spatial or motor control difficulties. I had no idea about all of these wonderful supports and assistive technologies for students struggling in math before reading this chapter in the textbook. Next, in this post I am going to focus on educational applications that can be used to teach math concepts, math skills, and problem solving. In order for students to become effective problem solvers, they need to have conceptual understanding.

Check out these great educational applications to support students struggling with math concepts, math skills, and problem solving in the classroom.

• Virtual Manipulatives
• National Library of Virtual Manipulatives maintained by Utah State University
• http://nlvm.usu.edu/
• Users can navigate the site by category ( number and operations, algebra, geometry, etc.) 
• Illuminations
• Provides visual representations of concepts and interactive activities.
• Computing Technology for Math Excellence
• Provides explanatory information related to using virtual manipulatives. 

• Internet 4 Classrooms
• High-quality free internet resources to use in classroom instruction and to reinforce specific subject matter areas at home.

• Virtual Laboratories in Probability and Statistics
• Great resource for students studying advanced math.
• Provides text to help students understand basic theories.

• Math Playground
• Supports learning math concepts, skills, and problem solving.
• Free, online activities provided in different categories. (math games, word problems, and logic puzzles)

• Conceptua Math
• Focuses on fractions and offers a variety of tools for teachers to use to enhance their whole class instruction.
• Provides visual models that are accompanied by spoken text to facilitate independent use.
• Grades 2-7

• Destination Math
• Targets development of skills in math reasoning, conceptual understanding, and problem solving for students K-12. 
• Use of animation and audio output keeps students engaged. 
• Also has a full Spanish version to support ELL students!

During my student teaching experience last year I had a student in my third grade class that was struggling with math sense. He was fine with math automaticity and fluency. However, he had trouble with math concepts and problem solving. Additionally, he would have trouble recognizing why his answer did not make sense. I worked with him one-on-one throughout the year to help him better understand math concepts, therefore making less errors in his problem solving. I wish I knew about some of these great educational applications because I think he would have really benefitted from them. My favorite educational application that I learned about was destination math because it supports students with step-by-step instructions much like a teacher would. I also loved that there is now a full Spanish version to support ELL students who are becoming more and more popular in todays classrooms. 

Amy G. Dell, Deborah A. Newton, Jerry G. Petroff. Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with Disabilities. (Chapter 5) 2012. Second Edition.