Summer 2004

Talking Maths

Aliens, Budgies and Blended Media in the Maths Classroom

In a blended media approach, the teacher’s role is vital in ensuring quality outcomes for students. GILLIAN CANDLER outlines two mathematics resources that not only make the most of the benefits of digital media for students, but also support teachers’ pedagogical strategies.

Teachers have an overwhelming range of classroom resources to choose from and the number of ICT resources available to schools is increasing exponentially. What should a teacher select? What resources are best to use? I recommend an approach we, at Learning Media, call ‘blended media’, that is, using resources in a variety of media (books, audio and digital resources, video, manipulatives) to best meet students’ needs.

Using a blended media approach can be a highly successful way to meet the varying student needs in a classroom; however, digital resources do not replace the teacher. The teacher is still vital in setting the instructional goals for students and then selecting resources to meet these goals. To be most successful, digital resources should extend what is available in print (rather than just replicating it) and must support the teacher’s pedagogical approach. Digital resources should not be treated as extras or add-ons, but as resources specifically chosen to meet students’ needs and interests. Blended media give teachers a greater choice in how they meet these needs and achieve their educational goals.

Two digital mathematics resources developed by Learning Media for use in a blended media approach are Alien Addition (www.learningmedia.co.nz/online_ activities/alien_addition/) and Budgie Buying (www.learningmedia. co.nz/online_activities/budgie_buying/). Each activity complements an activity from the Figure It Out series of maths books.

In Alien Addition, students pilot a space bus through an alien galaxy, practising addition, subtraction and estimation along the way. It is aimed at students aged 8–10. Budgie Buying helps to develop students’ financial literacy. They ‘buy’ a budgie and the things needed to look after it; calculate the costs, some discounts, and the total they have spent. This is aimed at students aged 9–11.

In choosing the activities from Figure It Out to support with digital resources, we wanted to be sure that we were making good use of the digital media and weren’t just converting a print resource to a digital resource. Unlike print, the digital resources include help functions to give students immediate access to the amount of support they need. This means students can work more independently than a print resource allows. At the end of Budgie Buying, students are asked to estimate how many toys they can buy for their budgie with the money they have left. The help screen suggests two ways of thinking about estimating—rounding numbers to the nearest whole dollar or grouping items together to make numbers that are tidy to work with (eg items costing $11.95 and $2.75 are going to be about $15 altogether). Students get immediate feedback on their answers, and while they earn rewards (medals in Alien Addition and bags of birdseed in Budgie Buying) for every answer they get correct, the resources also give students three chances to get an answer right. This, coupled with the instant feedback, can encourage students to take risks and experiment with their understanding of concepts and processes in a safe and non-judgemental environment.

These digital resources enhance the books by providing further opportunities to practice and to reinforce students’ understanding of mathematics strategies. The digital media allows questions and numbers to be varied every time the student begins the activity, which means there is a far greater range of questions than in a print resource. Also, the animation, sound and interactivity (particularly the choice and control that students have over their use of the interactivity) can motivate and engage students. Blasting through space in Alien Addition is a particular favourite of mine!

In a blended media classroom, the digital resources need to support the pedagogical strategies that the teacher is using. We wanted to be sure that the digital resources support the New Zealand Ministry of Education Numeracy Project. The help screens and the teachers’ notes use Numeracy Project strategies and approaches. In Alien Addition, students are asked to find the aliens’ seats in the space bus by matching the number on each alien’s belly to the equation on the seats. The help screen suggests using part-whole thinking (ie recognising that numbers can be broken in parts for ease of calculation) and number lines to find the answers to 53 + 49 or 63 – 17. The teachers’ notes suggest further strategies, such as using number sense to see that an alien with 67 on its belly won’t sit in the seat labelled with the equation 53 + 49 because both 53 and 49 are close to 50, and double 50 is 100, so the answer to 53 + 49 will be close to 100. Or students could work only with the ones digit to eliminate some seats for each alien; for example, the alien with 67 on its belly won’t sit on the seat labelled with 53 + 49 because 3 + 9 = 12, so the alien that will sit in this seat will have a belly number with 2 in the ones place.

The questions for the students also lend themselves to the use of Numeracy Project strategies. For example, in Alien Addition, students are asked in several questions to add two-digit numbers or to find a total for two-digit numbers that falls within a certain range. Students familiar with the Numeracy Project strategies can apply a number of strategies, such as rounding and compensation, finding compatible numbers, using known facts and place value, and estimation to efficiently answer these questions.

The teachers’ notes for Alien Addition and Budgie Buying suggest ways of using the resources in the classroom and ways of supporting struggling students. For example, the teachers’ notes for Budgie Buying suggest that the game can be played by pairs of students. This gives them opportunities to discuss their strategies and to peer teach. Discussing with a classmate what the question is asking them to do can also improve students’ comprehension of the questions. Alien Addition’s teachers’ notes recommend that teachers encourage the students to record any queries to ask you at a later time. This could provide a teaching point at group time … (and it) would show you any trends in the types of problems the group or class was having and would help with planning.

In selecting resources to meet the needs of your students, consider using digital resources alongside—not instead of—more traditional media. Ensure that the resources support your pedagogical approach, that the students know how to use the resources’ features to their advantage and that the resources are used in the classroom in ways that make the most of the rich learning opportunities that digital resources can provide.

Gillian Candler is chief executive officer of Learning Media in New Zealand.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au