A Totally Not Exhaustive Look at the Current State of Elementary EdTech

“What should we have kids doing on the Chromebooks?”

“What do you like on the iPad?”

“What are good apps for fact fluency?”

Everywhere I go, people ask for apps. Especially fluency apps, but apps. I live in a 1:1 state, and people feel like they need to use the things. I mean, they have the things, so they have to use the things.

These questions put me in a tricky spot because I’m not into tech for the sake of tech. Don’t use it just because you have it. Use it when it adds value.

The question becomes, when does it add value? I hadn’t looked in a while, so decided to do a roundup of what I see out there. This list isn’t exhaustive, but it’s a start. It’s also a living list, for me. By all means, tell me what’s good that I missed and I’ll update periodically.

There are lots of options. Spoiler alert: most are not good. In particular, the fluency apps are generally horrid. Here are the non-negotiable criteria I used to evaluate apps:

1. No time pressure. Some of the recommended apps have the option of timing or the option of disabling the timer. I recommend disabling the timer in all cases. If you can’t disable or mellow out the timer, don’t use the app.
2. Conceptual modeling. There are plenty of apps that have flashcards embedded in sushi restaurants, caves, junkyards, etc. But I’m looking for programs that relate the concepts of the number and operations to the fact. This usually means some form of visual modeling (arrays, dots, etc.).
3. Productive handling of mistakes. They’re opportunities to learn and should be framed as such. Also, competition is to be avoided for most students.

Beyond that, I look for a whole host of other attributes. Too many to name here, but if you’re interested, I wrote about my criteria a while back.

Here’s what I found this winter:

Board Games

Psyche! I know everyone wants to use tech, but for addition and subtraction, you can’t beat the classic dice-based game Shut the Box! It’s the best. Kids compose and decompose constantly. (Protip: I put a second layer of adhesive felt in the box to keep the sound down.) This is a description of standard play, and here are extensions with multiplication.

For multiplication (as well as number sense, structure, prime and composites, factors, etc.), I am a big fan of Prime Climb. It’s great and once kids know how to play (which takes a couple of times), they really enjoy it. Add it to your game cabinet, along with classics like 24.

Supplemental web curriculum that includes fluency, integrated with conceptual math

DreamBox. Only one of its kind. K-8, strong modeling and conceptual underpinning, excellent teacher dashboard and parent communication, facts embedded and conceptual, solid research base.

Suites of very good games that are also available individually

Motion Math has a strong vision. I’m a huge fan of Cupcake, which is a great game on a coordinate grid that also involves graphing, pricing, addition and subtraction, microeconomics, percents, etc. (Pizza is similar, but my kids don’t like it nearly as much as Cupcake, which they play all the time.) The full suite comes with a teacher dashboard, or you can buy individual apps only. They were originally all designed for iPads, and some games involve using the gyroscope and touch so much that I don’t know that they’ll ever have a Chromebooks version, but many of the games are now Chromebook compatible.

Math Snacks is newer to me. I really like Game Over Gopher, another coordinate grid game (why is that topic so gameable?). It’s written with a sense of humor and has rock-solid math.

Virtual Manipulatives

Lots of people sent me a link to the Math Learning Center’s free, virtual manipulatives. Yes. Thumbs up.

Apps for Specific Concepts

Numbers and operations

Dragonbox Numbers is playful and strong for K, in particular. I’m not such a fan of the sequel, Dragonbox Big Numbers, which I think pushes the standard algorithm too early, but the first one is really good, with truly charming animated Cuisenaire Rod-inspired monster-ish creatures and plenty of decomposing and composing.

Hungry Fish. I like it for addition and subtraction, including of integers.

Bunny Times. Not fancy, but sweet, free, and the math is right.

Match. As long as you set it to be the chilled-out time pressure setting, it’s strong for fluency. I like the variety of models a lot.

Number line/place value

Zoom. Zoom is not a game, per se, but students move up and down the number line and then zoom in and out on different intervals to place numbers. There are different animals at the different scales (e.g., dinosaurs, rhinos, dogs, frogs, bees, lice, amoeba). I think it’s a pretty amazing mental model of a dynamic number line, and I’m grateful for it.

Bounce. Bounce is another interesting number line game from Motion Math. Kids rock the iPad to bounce numbers on the line, starting with whole numbers and including fractions, decimals, etc. Clever.

Gate. Slightly creepy, but in a good way, according to one of my kids.

Fractions/decimals/ratios

Wootmath. Wootmath is not so much a game, but an educational app based on the Rational Numbers Project, which is great stuff. It has beautiful virtual manipulatives.

Slice Fractions. Nice visuals for fractions in this game and its sequel.

Refraction. A classic, at this point. Good stuff.

Sumaze2. Lovely. Challenging!

Bounce. (Described above.)

Ratio Rumble. My older daughter is way, way into this game. Ratios in a potions lab.

Ratio Rancher. It’s a solid game but we’ve found it to have a little bit of a temperamental user interface.

Coordinate Grids (Category winner: best in show)

Cupcake. My own children never get sick of Cupcake. They’ve been playing it for a year, and their intuition on the coordinate plane is pretty mind-blowing.

Game Over Gopher. A recent discovery for me. I really like it. Nicely done.

Relational Thinking

Solve Me Mobiles. From EDC. Really nice for equality and algebraic concepts.

Beauty, delight, puzzling, enrichment, problem solving

Nrich. Hands down, one of the best math ed sites out there. Great source of rich problems, for both students and teachers.

Math Munch. “A weekly digest of the mathematical internet.” There’s tons here.

Sumaze. Worthy challenges and puzzles.

Math Doodles: Delightful!

Teacher.desmos.com, student.desmos.com, desmos.com. 

Game about squares. Fair warning. Highly addictive.

Symmetry Artist. So. Much. Fun!

Update. Julie Wright has assembled two great collections of visual math and puzzles.