vmt-award-2024_47-1-_blue

Teaching Online During COVID - 19: Technology Review Section Editor: Alex Moore

In this section, we feature websites, online manipulatives, and web - based applications that are appropriate for K - 12 mathematics instruction. We are looking for critical reviews of technologies which focus on both the benefits and limitations of using these tools in a K - 12 mathematics

is a UK - based site. According to the creator, Jona than Hall, the site is not yet used much outside of the UK (J. Hall, personal communication, Septem ber 12, 2020). However, the multitude of easy - to use and versatile tools make it a site worth adding to your list of go - tos. While MathsBot does have a few intermittent ads, it ’ s completely free to users. Mr. Hall is a practicing teacher who took up pro gramming to create tools he wanted to use in his own classroom (Manners, 2020). As his site gained popularity, he also created and tweaked tools at the request of other teachers on Twitter. While MathsBot has content that is relevant for all levels of K - 12 math, I will focus on three examples of virtual manipulatives for elementary grades.

An Introduction to MathsBot: Virtual Manipu latives for Virtually Every Lesson

As schools across the country are adjusting to re mote learning or socially distant classrooms, teach ers are searching for innovative ways to adapt their favorite hands - on learning activities for students. Such was the case with the question I received from a third - grade colleague: “ Do you know of a site that lets kids manipulate base 10 blocks, but as they get 10 on the ones... it bursts into a ten? ” She was trying to recreate a place value lesson she had done the year before in an asynchronous, online format. We looked at several of the free virtual ma nipulative sites that are popular with elementary teachers like Didax, Math Learning Center, and Toy Theater, but each had its own drawback or limitation. Our search, with the help of Twitter, finally led us to www.MathsBot.com, the resource site that I review here (Hall, n.d.).

Examples of MathsBot Tools

Dienes Blocks

The Dienes Blocks Tool (Figure 1) is what initially drew my colleague and me to MathsBot. Known as

As you may have guessed from “ Maths, ” MathsBot

Figure 1: The Dienes Blocks Tool

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 47, no. 1

21