Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources IXL or ALEK math???

Hi everyone! So at home, I'm going to be teaching ds10 math. This should be interesting....haha I'm going to be covering the schools everyday math curriculum, but I also want to "spice" it up with online learning. Any opinions on IXL or the ALEK math program? He has tried EPGY for enrichment in the past, but it just wasn't visually stimulating enough for him (or me!) Thoughts are greatly appreciated!

So I hope I'm not sounding like a broken record but here is what we've found with our very mathy kid (well into algebra at this point, starting algebra II).

ALEX: Okay. Good, not great. The pie charts that they offer for what you need to cover are good, but that's about it. It's generally presented as problem-oriented (solve this problem to see if you're proficient) and not really lesson oriented. For us--and probably you too--the courses do match local curriculum so that's a plus. Costs money.

Alcumus / AoPS : Much, much better. It's still problem-focused in that you're given a problem to solve but there are a couple of things that make it better. First, it's a much better interface IMO. More usable. Second, you rate the question. Third, you also rate the explanation of the answer. For an auto-didactic, once you get them started they can basically go at their own pace on autopilot. There are nifty "quests" that you go on for fun. Some of them are random and some are focused on solving given problems. DS loves it. Oh, and it's free.

Khan Academy: My new favorite. You may have watched the videos in the past (in fact DS still does on the drive to school) you're probably familiar with Sal. Well they've recently launched a companion web site that coordinates video lessons with test exercises. Best of all worlds IMO. There are also "badges" you can earn for doing various things to keep some of the goal oriented fun. I believe Khan has it broken down to be reasonably close to CA's curriculum. There are A LOT of metrics you can get for your child as well to help you figure out what he/she is getting stuck on. They're actively working on the platform so I expect it to continue to improve. Oh, it's also free.

So our son was doing ALEKs at school but now that he's done with that, he basically just goes back and forth between AoPS and Khan and loves them both.

Not sure if that helps or not, but that's been our experience. We use these as enrichment at home.

Good luck!

JB

BTW, if you're not already familiar with Vi Hart, go to her web site (http://vihart.com/) or YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart) and watch her math videos. All of our kids love them and we keep hoping she'll post more. She's a virtual hero in our household.

(Dontcha wish this is the type of thing that they'd actually do in school for enrichment?)

JB

Great! Thank you JBdad! Yes, LOVE the ViHart videos...My son was trying to explain their coolness factor to his math teacher and once again, his teacher didn't care grrrr...I just discovered the Khan Academy and it looks wonderful. I will look into the videos with test exercises and also Alcumus/AoPS. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply!

No wonder where Vi got her motivation from huh? "So if you're like me you're sitting in math class bored..."



JB

Check out www.conquersmath as well. My DS prefers it to Aleks.

Could you give a few more details why you like the conquersmath? Would this be good for a talented Math student who learns quickly?

DS10 has Alex available at school to do this year, but is not doing it. He has decided after only 2 hrs in the program that he has to do too much work that he already knows. He was suppose to do this program to increase his pace, but the teacher is not familiar with Alex and now he is just going along with the class, which is too slow for him.

Hi OTGmom,
If Aleks is already availible in school, I would call the Aleks people and find out if there is a special switch the teacher should press to allow your DS to move ahead after 3 correct problems like we did at home. Also - ask them how to allow the teacher to Allow your son to take one of their assesments - perhaps at the next grade level up - to see where he is on their schema.
Switching is ok, but better to see if you can tweak what you already have, yes?

Love and More LOve,
Grinity

I'm the ALEKS administrator for my school and I'm not sure what you mean by "going along with the class." Unless the teacher is manually resetting ALEKS, this just doesn't happen. Your DS would take an assessment at the beginning of logging into ALEKS the first time. From that assessment, the software fills in a pie based on what he already knows, needs to know or wasn't tested.

Once a child has completed 85% of the pie (unless the school set it lower) then the teacher receives an email from ALEKS saying it's time to move to the next level, where the whole assessment starts over again for the new grade/course.

If he hypothetically completed 85% of 6th grade and the teacher re-placed him in 6th grade again, he'd take an assessment. If he finished 85% or close to it, ALEKS would email again saying the child is ready to move up.

It sounds like based on your explanation that he maybe needs to move to the next class? But I'm still not sure how he has anything left to do in ALEKS and the teacher didn't reassign him.

Ok, I just bookmarked the Khan Academy website as something we might find useful, but the AoPS appears to be pretty pricey, not free -- am I missing something?

We do like ALEKS, although I agree that it is not much on explanations and heavy on problems. DS8 is finishing up 7th grade level in his ALEKS with the school. If the school has an account, you can get ALEKS for $40/year, as opposed to the $20/month price for it as an individual. Our school pays for it out of their GT budget.