The world is split into two kinds of people: those who succeed in math class and everybody else. At least, this has been the popular point of view—that those who are good at math are math geeks. While it‘s true that research shows that genetics have an impact on intelligence and aptitude, teachers and students shouldn’t give up on math class so quickly.
The National Association for The Education of Young Children states that developing early skills in math is the key to building a foundation for future math learning. Math is difficult and boring for most students, but educators can use digital technology to boost student engagement and make math class fun and exciting again.
Source: https://avatargeneration.com/2013/03/americas-math-problem
5 Ways to Make Math Class Fun:
1. Game-Based Learning
Games like Math Breakers are taking a different approach to learning. By integrating fundamental math concepts into an immersive world, students can explore math concepts and play fun games at the same time. This is what videogames do best: gradually increase the game’s difficulty while intensifying the player’s emotional investment. When instituted in the classroom, these digital solutions can reinvigorate stale or tedious exercises and keep students engaged in math class.
2. Video–Assisted Learning
One of the biggest problems in teaching math is the number of abstract concepts. It can be hard for students to visualize them and make them relevant. If teachers use videos to illustrate fundamental math concepts applied to everyday life, they can make lessons more interesting. We’ve all asked the question: “When will I ever use this?” Using applications like SharePoint or OneNote to embed and share visualization of abstract concepts can provide an immediate answer.
3. Humor and YouTube
Infusing humor into tedious classwork can have a positive effect on student engagement. YouTube has many channels dedicated to math–based humor. Numberphile is particularly fun.
4. Math Websites
The ever–increasing accessibility of the internet provides students with options for learning outside of the classroom. There is a plethora of math websites that offer assisted instruction for a variety of math concepts, and students can access them on their own time. Funbrain.com is one of the more popular sites that students can visit.
5. Virtual Manipulatives
Manipulatives such as Base Ten Blocks and Tangrams are commonly used in math class to help students concretize abstract concepts. Virtual manipulatives harness the capabilities of the web to put these instruments at every student‘s fingertips. And because these digital tools circumvent the physical limitations of their concrete counterparts, they can be used for the analysis of more complex concepts (i.e. more blocks, more options for exploration).
On their own, these digital solutions have the potential to present math topics in interesting—if not downright fun—ways. However, putting them all together in a user-friendly digital classroom provides less distractions for students and permits educators to better monitor student activity.
Intuitive user interfaces like LiveTiles Mosaic offer convenient, no-code solutions for integration. With the free Mosaic tool, teacher can create a beautiful interactive digital classroom for their students’ learning needs.
As the screen shot below illustrates, dedicated tiles for video links provide instant access to relevant visualizations, which is perfect for comprehending those aforementioned abstract concepts. Within seconds, tiles can be set up so that students can open teacher-approved websites that provide assisted instruction to struggling students. Having all of these options at the students’ fingertips makes it easier for them to optimize their class time.
Digital solutions enable students to spend more time on the things that matter. If teachers are willing to integrate digital technology into the classroom, their students will not only succeed in math class, they’ll have some fun in the process.
