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Review of Waggle by Triumph Learning

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The adaptive learning landscape is heating up, big-time. With the development and widespread use of the Common Core Standards by states across the country, it is now more feasible for major education content publishers to get into the learning technology game. Publishers are not just trying to get into this space of technology, they are offering tools that bring individualized lessons and activities. These are lessons that are designed to meet the needs of students based on their current level of performance demonstrated through the platform. This approach is referred to as adaptive learning. Waggle is a Triumph Learning product.

Waggle

Triumph Learning

4

Waggle is an online learning management software that provides lessons, games and assessments in alignment with the Common Core Standards.

Pros

Adaptive Technology

Waggle utilizes the Knewton's technology to determine the precise lesson that a student needs to be working on. This allows students to grow in a manner in which they are not being bored by content that that they have already mastered. Also, they will not become overly frustrated, because they are being presented with content that they are not developmentally ready for.

Cost:

Waggle is reasonably priced at $10.00 per student for each subject. That works out to $20 per student for Math and Reading. For schools and districts, there are site licences available that will bring the cost down per pupil.

Backed by a Reputable Publisher

Waggle is a Triumph Learning product. Therefore, they will have access to high quality content. Triumph is also the publisher of the Coach text series. These texts definitely complement the Waggle Software.

Schools and Districts

According to Waggle, "Our site license starts at schools with student population of 300+. Prices can go as low as $6 per student per subject for Smart Practice for large schools. We are also offering a blended learning grant currently to districts to support their investment in and professional development of Waggle. "

Educational Games

All the games on Waggle are educational in nature. Teachers may assign games to students as a part of the curriculum.

Gamification Component

Students earn points for participating in games and practice sessions.

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Study Island Review

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Study Island

Edmentum

4

Study Island is a comprehension, online learning tool that allows students to master the Common Core Curriculum and more, through supplemental practice and assessment measures. Study Island is available for math, science, social studies, reading and language arts. Study Island allows teachers to assign activities and quizzes to students. Students will earn ribbons, which acts as an additional motivator for students.

Pros

Wide Range of Subjects

Study Island Provides a wide range of subjects for some grade-levels. For example, online learning for math, reading, science and social studies are available for third, fourth and fifth grade students in Georgia to help them get ready for the Georgia Milestones Assessments; formerly the CRCT’s.

Progress Monitoring

Teachers and administrators are able to keep track of the skills that have been attempted or covered by students. This allows accurate decisions to be made regarding student performance.

Quiz Management:

Teachers can quickly assign practice and quizzes to individual students, classes or groups to drive instruction. This makes it a great tool for blended learning in the classroom and at home.

Pre-assessment

Teachers are able to provide pre-assessments to determine how students are starting out on a unit. This makes it very useful for teachers to determine how students are currently performing. This is especially useful for teachers who need data to determine how to group students in the classroom.

Differentiated Instruction:

By default students have access to all of the programs subscribed to by your school. Therefore, teachers can go in and fine-tune the activities that students have at their disposal. This makes it a great way to offer differentiation inside the classroom. For English Language Learners (ELL’s), the text-to-speech feature allows students to select text and press play to have the text read aloud through the computer's speakers or headphones; this is great way to provide additional support to those students who may be reading or performing below grade-level.

Compare to Other Classrooms and State:

Study Island provides insights into the way other groups of students may be using the software. This insight allows you, the teacher, to see how your class may compare with other populations inside and outside of the school.

Lesson Plans:

Teachers may also access lesson plans for specific skills if necessary. This may reduce the amount of time a teacher spends preparing lessons targeted at a specific skill or objective.

Downloadable Worksheets:

Teachers may be able to download worksheets to use for whatever reason.

Motivation

Teachers can adjust the percentage correct required to achieve the blue ribbon in the classroom. This makes it a great tool that can be used as a way to motivate an entire class, grade or school. Students will need to keep practicing and earning more and more ribbons. For advanced students, the percentage required to earn a ribbon can be increased making it a good tool to use to motivate students to do their best.

Cons

Online Worksheet:

Many of the questions that are generated on Study Island are not different than a regular downloadable worksheet. However, the main difference is that it is on a screen.

Boredom Central:

Many of the students find the activities to be a little boring. Therefore, Study Island is not really the kind of program that the average student is eager to jump on and get going. However, I have found that making a big deal out of earning badges and providing additional rewards may alleviate some of the boredom for some students. Maybe, rather than having a dedicated game mode, Study Island should have embedded, into activities, a smart educational game to act as a reward for earning a ribbon. This will provide an added incentive for students to keep working and earning ribbons.

Hard to Navigate:

Taking into consideration the amount of time that Study Island has been around, I am disappointed that the program is still so hard to navigate. I think that some minimal changes to the administrative end of the software will go a long way in improving.

Lack of Better Display of Mastery Tracking:

Many of my students ask me which skills they have mastered. It would be really beneficial for the students, parents, teachers and administrators to have a display of the standards and a way for them to see the standards mastered by the students, classes and the entire school.

Inaccurate Scores:

One of the major problems that I have with Study Island is that the program does not generate new questions based on the skills or standards being covered. As a result of this, some of the students will go through activities and determine the correct answer to a problem and then go through the same activity again knowing what the correct responses are for each problem. This gives an inaccurate score.

Better Adaptive Learning Mechanisms:

With the widespread use of adaptive technologies, and when you think of the fact that Edmentum is now the Publisher behind Study Island, I think that it is disappointing that they have not improved Study Island to include better adaptive technologies that would improve upon the way in which questions are presented to students. Remember, a student may be in the 5th grade, but they may be working on a third grade level. Therefore, if a parent went and purchased this software it may not be very beneficial because the content presented will be above their current performance. On the other hand, if the software had better adaptive measures, the software would better be able to determine the current grade level performance of each student. This would end up being way more useful for all users.

Lack of More Cross-Curricular Reading Comprehension Activities

Taking into consideration that Study Island has a wide range of content areas under focus, I think that it would have been very beneficial for some of the reading comprehension passages to include more content that involves science and social studies content. This would have been very beneficial for students as they prepare for the Georgia Milestones Assessments.

From the Publisher- Edmentum:

Founded in 2000, Study Island, an Edmentum product, helps students in kindergarten through 12th grade master state-specific, grade-level academic standards in a fun and engaging manner. We provide standards-based instructional, practice, assessment, and productivity tools that improve the performance of educators and students via our web-based platforms.

Study Island combines rigorous content that is highly customized to specific state standards in math, reading, writing, science, and social studies with interactive features and games that engage students and reinforce and reward learning achievement. Study Island’s programs enable educators to track student performance in real-time to address individual learning gaps, while allowing administrators to monitor student progress and measure teacher effectiveness.

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IXL Learning Review

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IXL

IXL Learning

4

IXL is one of the most popular online learning technology tools for elementary, middle and high school students. IXL Math fully covers the Common Core Standards for grades K-12, and IXL has now incorporated language arts skills as a part of the portfolio of standards-based activities. This coverage allows students to practice math questions that are correlated to the standards adapted across the United States and in many countries across the world such as India, Australia, Singapore and others. The key to IXL’s math program is that students will not see repeated questions. Instead, the questions are generated using IXL’s own algorithm that allows questions to be uniquely generated based on the standards or skills being covered.

Pros

Performance Monitoring and Progress Monitoring:

IXL has a great progress monitoring backend that is available to teachers, administrators, and even parents, that makes it possible to keep track of the ways that students are interacting with the software. This performance monitoring will provide whole-class or individual student data to keep track of progress. Therefore, you will be able to see the students that are most active on the platform, as well as the standards that they have covered and the level of content and standards mastery. If a student enters the incorrect answer for a question while practicing, IXL will provide a solution for the students and a brief lesson to refresh their memory. It is pretty impressive that IXL is able to explain the correct answer to students. This makes the program a great supplemental tool for mastering the curriculum. Additionally, with the utilization of the data provided, enhanced blended learning can be incorporated into the learning process by teachers and administrators, as you will be able to see the skills that students are having a hard time covering. This makes it possible to create effective cooperative groups in the classroom.

Built in Motivation:

IXL has embedded gamification tools making learning fun and rewarding for students. The more learning activities that they participate in, the more points and rewards they will unlock.

Adaptive Learning:

IXL learning allows students to keep practicing until they have mastered specific skills. When the students receive a "Smart Score" of 100%, or whatever score was set by the administrator, the program predicts that the student has mastered that particular skill indicating that the student is ready to move on.

Competitive Pricing:

IXL covers math and English language arts (ELA) standards for $15 per month. That is less than what the average person pays for a meal. This is a worthwhile investment any parent could make in their child’s education.

Backed by a Well Established Company:

IXL Learning is the same company behind Quia.

Cons

Online Worksheet:

IXl is not much different from a regular math worksheet or reading worksheet. The main difference is that the questions are on a screen. It would be very beneficial for some students to be able to have more questions with manipulatives available at their disposal when solving problems.

Pre-assessment:

The program would really benefit from a pre-asessment that could be administered to students to determine their current developmental level before lessons are assigned by the teacher or parent.

Adding Students:

It would be very beneficial to be able to bulk upload students. Adding students one-by-one takes up a lot of time.

Overall:

I feel confident that IXL is a great tool for all students to expose and provide adequate content-based skill mastery. However, there are many enhancements that need to be made to the IXL learning platform to make it truly remarkable and invaluable. I think that with the level of rigor that is expected to truly master the Common Core Standards, IXL Learning, particularly the math section, falls a little short. However, if the main objective is to master specific skills, then IXL is perfect for that. Therefore, a teacher could effectively assign a standard to a student, or the entire class, and watch as they master the standard, while also providing classroom instruction targeting that particular skill. As a result of this, IXL can act as great online support to the instruction that is taking place in the classroom.

From the Publisher-IXL Learning:

PRACTICE THAT FEELS LIKE PLAY

Practice makes perfect, and IXL makes math and language arts practice fun! IXL sets a new standard for online learning, offering unlimited, algorithmically generated questions; real-time analytical reports; and dynamic scoring to encourage mastery. Released in 2007, it has since become the world's most popular subscription-based learning site for K–12. With more than 4,000 unique and challenging skills to master, IXL offers a dynamic and enjoyable environment suitable for any learning style. Students who use IXL are succeeding like never before.

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