Evaluation of IXL.COM Math Practice site

Ixl.com from Quia Corporation, is an educational drill and practice online resource tool for preschool and primary school students (subscription based).Drill and practice exercises from this website can enhance the daily classroom experience. It has unlimited questions on hundreds of math topics and a comprehensive reporting system.

IXL MATH provides students with extra math practice on grade-appropriate math skills, while having a little fun. The preschoolers start with counting and learning shapes, while the later grades delve into topics such as addition, subtraction, fractions, probabilities and decimals.

Math can be a challenge to some students, so it’s very important for young learners to get a firm handle on the basics. This can only be achieved with practice. The online resource IXL Math is an alternative to boring worksheets, presenting math quizzes for students from Preschool age straight to the final grade level in primary school, in a visual way.

B.F. Skinner’s behaviorism predicted that teaching would best succeed using the traditional rote learning, memorization and drill and practice techniques. Skinner argued that “learning by doing” included not only actual practice of a given skill, such as playing the piano, but also drill and practice memorization techniques (Skinner, 1968). Even though the Montessori elementary schools philosophies suggest that these methods are not effective, they still devote resources to drill and practice. The skills built through drill-and-practice should become the building blocks for more meaningful learning.

In order to evaluate the educational resources provided by ixl.com, I used a 4 year old preschooler to determine the usability and suitability of the kindergarten skills. The skills are organized into categories, I chose the "POSITION" skill to see how well the student performed. This skill covered concepts such as inside and outside, top middle and bottom, left and right, above and below, and location in a three by three grid.

The educational tool on this website is suitable for four reasons: · The use of color and the illustrations of smiling kids. The colors and pictures make the site appear very inviting and friendly. · Various aspects of each question can be read aloud when students click on the audio icon (as seen to the left). This accommodates for the  students whose reading skills have not yet developed. · The layout is very good, and navigation within the site is very easy. · The positive reinforcement given immediately after an answer was submitted enhances a child’s self concept.

http://www.ixl.com/math/
http://www.ixl.com/math/grade/kindergarten/

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