Roll out the red carpet! Grab your best gowns and join us for the Maths Insider Online Maths Programs Awards 2011
Best budget online maths program – Ten Marks
“TenMarks is mapped to state standard and common core curriculums for grades 2 – high school.Curriculums are personalized to meet every student’s specific needs, and cover foundation and enrichment concepts. Students love the TenMarks approach to math practice and instruction. They learn using interactive worksheets on bite-sized topics, with hints and video lessons guiding them to success.”
Best for gifted – Art of Problem Solving
“Students who take Art of Problem Solving online courses will develop advanced problem solving skills, interact with students of their own ability, learn from instructors who have won national math competitions and trained others to do the same, discover the tools necessary for success on prominent math competitions such as MATHCOUNTS and the American Mathematics Competitions.”
What I love about Art of Problem Solving: Solving the problem of bright but bored students, the Art of Problem Solving online classes give gifted students the chance to work on the exciting parts of maths not usually covered in the curriculum and mix online with other gifted students.
Best online math program for High School (US) – Virtual Nerd
“Virtual Nerd is a unique, online resource offering students real help in math and science. Students get the essential benefits of private tutoring and access to over 1,400 (and growing) interactive step-by-step video tutorials presented in their patent-pending Dynamic Whiteboard™. And the Playlist tool allows you to create, save and share study guides of your most favorite (or challenging) concepts.”
What I love about Virtual Nerd: Just like one of my favourite movies, Inception, Virtual Nerd’s tutorials offer tutorials within tutorials within tutorials, making it a guarantee that even if your high-schooler has weaknesses in middle school maths topics, they’ll still be able to tackle algebra and other advanced topics with ease.
Best online maths program for High School (UK) – Conquer Maths
“ConquerMaths have teamed up with Pat Murray, an truly excellent maths teacher who presents each lesson in a friendly, step-by-step manner. The lessons are concise and logical making them really easy to retain which gives students that important confidence in their ability. One of the most powerful features of ConquerMaths is the ability to stop and rewind the teacher to repeat any areas students’ don’t fully understand, as many times as they like until they feel comfortable. There’s no embarrassment factor and Pat will never get frustrated.”
What I love about Conquer Maths: My older kids are on their 2nd year on the Conquer Maths program. I love the rewind facility which means I can easily help out on the rare occasions that my kids get stuck, and the email notifications so I can see when they’ve got stuck, not asked me for help but have worked it through!
Best Free Online Maths Program – Khan Academy
“With a library of over 2,700 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 247 practice exercises, we’re on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace. Students can make use of our extensive video library, practice exercises, and assessments from any computer with access to the web. Coaches, parents, and teachers have unprecedented visibility into what their students are learning and doing on the Khan Academy.”
What I love about Khan Academy: For a free product, Khan Academy gives amazing access to the maths curriculum and it’s just like having a friendly Uncle helping your kids with their homework. Now Khan Academy has built in tests and rewards to further motivate students.
Best Online math program for young children – Dreambox
“DreamBox Learning K-3 Math is an online program with educational games that are individualized for student, adapting the curriculum just for them. It’s a fun, effective math learning environment. Unlike other math games that often sacrifice learning for entertainment. DreamBox Learning’s adaptive learning looks beyond right or wrong answers, assessing a student’s strategy. Simply getting the answer right isn’t enough. How quickly did a student answer? Did he need extra hints? Did she improve?”
What I love about Dreambox: The animated landscape that Dreambox have developed is like a perfect dreamworld for young kids. When I trialed this with my 5 year old he loved the characters and friendly audio instructions and I loved the helpful emails giving me ideas for practical offline activities to match his online learning.
Best overall online maths program –Math-Whizz
“Math-Whizz Makes a Difference to Your Child’s Math Ability. Online math tuition through Math-Whizz Tutoring Plus improves students’ maths. We guarantee that 5 to 13 year olds will improve using times tables games and superb online resources. Math-Whizz uses award-winning interactive math animations and unique tutoring methods to deliver measurable results” Maths Whizz have programs for the US, the UK and India.
What I love about Math-Whizz: My 5 year old has recently started on this lively animated maths program. He loves the funny animations, weird sound effects and collecting credits as he works through the short exercises and tests. I love that I can see his maths age improving each week and that he’s loving his maths!
Does your family use online maths programs? Who would you give an online maths program award to? Tell me in the comments below!
