Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources ALEKS vs. other alternatives

I probably need to post an update but I'm short on time right at the moment.

Currently our situation for this year is that DS is able to go out of his classroom to another class for more appropriate math. That's been working fabulously so far. When he returns to his normal classroom, he's to do his math homework and then any extra time is spent on ALEKS. For math "homework" (he doesn't really need any but we do it for routine purposes) he might log on to ALEKS and do a little more work.

During the math period in his homeroom he doesn't get any real instruction or direction other than "[Child] you can go work on your math now." So we were thinking ALEKS was a little more guiding and instructional. It seems to be more focused on online review/questions only. *That* can get pretty boring to anyone, even our child who loves math. We're probably going to do ALEKS for the rest of this year just because it's already in place and we have a lot of other good things brewing. But honestly the boy would probably find it much more interesting to read Life of Fred or watch Khan's academy videos.

My question is are all of the online-based math programs like this? Or are there ones that do a better job of presenting the material and then evaluating the student? I know, it's like we're trying to replace the teacher. And in some ways we are trying to give the boy the right support in the elementary setting. But the fact is he's probably *not* going to have anyone available to explain things to him so it has to be something that works a little better self-paced.

Thanks in advance!

JB

With math, it seems to me that there's a need for learning material and a need for assessment/practice that's not too burdensome. It might be possible to get the practice from a website that's not so good for learning the material conceptually.

We currently use IXL for our five-year-old son. It's good in several ways: the material is keyed to state standards, it's easy to pick and choose which task you want to do (it's not in lock-step with a linear curriculum), the type of problems presented are varied when possible, it's adaptive, and going through a task doesn't take time if you know the material.

However, IXL is not be the best tool for teaching math, as it has no lessons. I typically have just told our son about a concept, then turned him loose on a task. Most of them he can finish in a few minutes each, due to the adaptive nature of the testing. So far we haven't encountered anything that I can't teach him easily or that he doesn't just "get", but that day will come.

Another area where IXL tends to be weak is on the explanations, if your child does miss a question. If that happens I just have him skip the explanations.

All in all, IXL is okay for practice. I would look at something else, like K12, Singapore Math, etc. for instruction. The Gizmos Explore Learning site looks cool, although it says it's a supplement only.

Yes, I'd love to hear about other's experience with CTY and EPGY as these are two alternatives we'd like the school to consider. Since they've set up ALEK in the classroom, switching programs next is should be in the realm of possibilities

This would be at the algebra level (+/- a year).

Thanks!

JB

It's sort of the other direction from the way you're thinking, but we're loving Alcumus. It's problem-based, with instruction as an add-on, which is why I say it's in the other direction - but I feel strongly that RR is right and that mathematics is much more about learning to do it than about learning techniques. It does have generally very good explanations of how to do each problem which you can access if you get stuck, an assortment of video lessons (your DS would need earplugs/phones if using these in a classroom where others were doing other things), and accompanying books. (You can have it choose "focus topics", you can choose your own, or there is a "Follow Book" option which might be the best in a classroom context.)

I started a thread about it here but didn't get reports of other people using it - which surprises me, given how many people use ALEKS/EPGY etc.; I think it's mathematically far better, and right up the street of many here. And no, they don't pay me :-)

Our school used EPGY as an extension to the regular curriculum until last year. I don't know if they have upgraded it but my kids hated EPGY. Graphically, it's boring, the droning old guy drove them crazy and it didn't let them move faster when they knew something. A teacher could bump up the level if stuff was too easy but the program did not accelerate them automatically. This was inconvenient since my kids did the program at home. Worse yet, it seems to have turned them off to online instruction. This year the school switched to ALEKS. They have been reluctant to give ALEKS a try. Since it is optional, I haven't pushed it. They seem to like doing "fun math" on mathplayground.com but that's not instructional. I'd love to get the school to look at Alcumus but they just bought into ALEKS. (Sigh).

My ds7 loves EPGY - he does it at home, though, not at school. When he first started, he hated to get anything wrong - had a total meltdown, flying snot and all Now that he's been doing it a couple of months, he is doing so much better, and even though he does occasionally get frustrated, he actually stops, thinks, and tries to figure it out instead of going crazy. He has also learned to check his answer before hitting enter

Alcumus is free (for now) and registration etc. is very straightforward (I had to send off a fax to give parental permission since DS was under [some age relevant to US law, I forget what], but they acted on it quickly). So maybe school might be willing, or maybe you could just sign up for home use?

Thanks! I didn't realize that it's free. I think that I will just ignore school and see if I can get the girls to give it a try over the break.

Thanks for the info ColinsMum. We tried Alcumus about a year back but DS(then 7) wasn't ready yet. I think he'll love it now. And I'm so impressed by your son. Well done!