Day two: 16/3/11

Today was a slow day, not much to write about. The students utilised their computers during the Maths session. The whole class does "Mathletics" (a computer program that allows students to practise skills and compete with other students in real time). The session run for 1 hour and the students were focused and engaged. They worked independently and the level of noise in the classroom was very low. Students were practising addition and multiplication.

I am not sure what to think about Mathletics and they way it is utilised in this classroom. I am almost sure that a whole hour of drill practise will not be very engaging for students if the computer was not involved, however I am not sure what is it that engages them. I believe it is the anonymity of it all that they like. I imagine running the same lesson of drill practise and competition within the classroom without the computer and I am sure that the less capable students will disengage and feel embarrassed if they cannot answer fast enough. I think that this technology allows students to practise at their own skill level and in a blanket of anonymity, as they can be playing with someone in another part of the world. In that regard I think Mathletics is a good program to use sometimes in the classroom.