We have spent a lot of time in our district considering what digital literacy should look like at the primary level. To its credit, DreamBox Learning has received strong reviews and many awards. It is also one of the first digital tools, I have seen, which introduces students to learning in a digital environment, while offering ongoing and constructive feedback; it also includes a school-home connection — a key focus in our use of technology in the younger grades. Currently, 10 of our elementary schools are piloting the program.
We have had some success with a home-reading program that I wrote about earlier here, and DreamBox has similar potential with its school and home licensing components.
What I like about it so far:
- the program adapts to the student’s abilities — so students can be working in the same classroom, but at their own level
- it allows students to work through and solve problems — offering them assistance as they need it
- real-time assessment for teachers (and for parents — if enabled for home use) is included; a recent addition of a program component allows for school-wide overviews — a great way to identify areas of focus in a school
- students report the learning is fun — it is not about just taking math equations and putting them online; it is all built around digital manipulatives
- students can spend 30 minutes working with the program in school, and then supplement this at home (or not)
What it doesn’t do:
- DreamBox does not “replace” math and numeracy instruction
- it is linked, but is not an exact match to curriculum
I have worked with it at home with my three oldest children, and the results have been impressive — it has given learning focus to some of their screen time, and they have become more confident in numeracy and solving problems in multiple ways. In addition, as a parent, I have received feedback in ways I have never before with my kids’ learning, and this feedback has given me ideas for extension activities I can do with my kids.
As we make decisions for the fall, it will be interesting to hear the reactions of students, teachers and parents on the program’s value and the role they see DreamBox Learning playing. In the marriage of personalized learning and technology, I think adaptive learning platforms — like that on display with DreamBox Learning — will become increasingly important.
Cool post! I’ve been using the http://www.khanacademy.org with a few high school students – lots of positive feed back too!
I hope more students learn about it – especially weak math students! Often if they can revisit a lesson at home, without any classroom distractions – they get it right away!
Thanks Aaron. As others have said, it is interesting the mixed reaction that the Khan videos are receiving in the blog world. While these type of videos may not revolutionize our system, they could absolutely be a huge help for learners needing to review topics or who may not learn best in a class full of students with a teacher at the front of the room.
Thanks for sharing.
Chris, I agree with you that Dreambox provides a nice alternative to the typical screen time that kids are getting in their day to day lives. It is both engaging and purposeful; I have had kids in my school working on it in pairs but also individually, and they are equally focused. Usually in bursts of 20 mins twice a week…not much more.
I would agree that a program like this is by far not the be all and end all of math instruction but instead a nice addition that allows educators to integrate digital literacy into basic numeracy skills amongst primary students.
At Chartwell, we have seen a terrific use for it in our Learning Support Centre where we have set up a number of individual accounts for learners who are struggling with basic concepts. Dreambox has allowed a couple of our boys, sometimes reluctant to come for learning support, to work at their own pace and see immediate results.
Teachers are equally encouraged by both the overall student engagement and the fact that they can both circulate and discuss problem solving strategies with individual students; or see student progress using the Teacher Dashboard.
Pretty unique tool….would be interested in what else Pearson has up their sleeve in the area personalized learning and primary literacy or perhaps an intermediate version of Dreambox.
Thanks for the feedback on how it is going at your school. It looks like DreamBox will be expanding through grade five by the fall, which will be interesting to experiment with. I am interested if full schools begin using DreamBox if the educators find the reports helpful and instructive to help guide their instruction. One of our challenges is always the lack of immediate feedback to adjust our lessson planning – this technology offers the possibility of being able to get real-time feedback in a class or across an entire school.
One of the values I have seen in FSA assessments is the reports that are generated indicating particular areas of strength or weakness in a particular grade or school that can be used to inform instruction. The DreamBox software seems to offer this same possibility without the several month lag that comes with the FSA results.
Prior to reading your post, I had never heard of DreamBox. I am currently running a free trial of Mathletics in my Grade 2 classroom. Make sure you give it a try (if you haven’t already) before deciding whether or not to go with DreamBox.
Thanks Nicole – I hadn’t seen Mathletics: http://www.mathletics.ca/ before. It is nice that it is a Canadian product. It looks like another good example of software that has both a school and home component.
Looks like an interesting program. I watched the Salman Khan TED talk last week and I think these sorts of digital learning tools have the potential to be fantastic resources.
I was surprised at some of the criticism of Khan Academy in the education blogosphere because of it’s pedagogical shortcomings, which I think misses the point. I was a student who struggled in secondary school math, but there was only so much one on one time I could get with a teacher. Digital software that can provide practice opportunities with feedback for every student simultaneously is a very good thing.
Like you say, these things don’t replace actual instruction, but I think they have the potential to be a really useful tool for teachers. I’ll stay tuned, I hope in the future you’ll post some of the result of this pilot project!
Here is the Salman Khan TED talk:
Love this software! I am trialing it with my daughter, who is in Kindergarten. She is thrilled, and thinks she is having fun playing games! Here in PG we just had a meet with Resource teachers, admin and EAs to share resources and strategies for working with students with learning difficulties. Dreambox wasn’t even on our radar (wish I’d seen this post yesterday). Khan Academy is widely used, especially as a resource to share with parents. Mathletics is also quite popular. There was much discussion about integrating technology, in particular, how to get access to the tools people in the schools want to use. Our district recently went single platform (not Mac), and that leaves a gap in our toolbox (hard to beat the iPad). We are also at the beginning of a journey to create open access to internet at all schools and allow for the use of personal devices such as smartphones and laptops/netbooks at school. It is an exciting time to be working on the leading edge of education!
I think math is a great area for this type of adaptive tool – given the great range we often have in our classes in math. We seem challenged to continue to enrich and push those at the high end of our classes while building the confidence and skills of our struggling numeracy learners.
It is interesting your reference to Mathletics – you are second person to mention this – I have not heard of it before.
While I don’t want to be selling, we are finding the financial entry point to DreamBox to be quite reasonable.
As you work through it – let me know how it goes with DreamBox. We are thinking about using it twice a week in class for about 20 minutes and then suggesting families might want to supplement this with 20-40 minutes at home each week.
Just took a few minutes to check it out and it looks great. I particularly like the part about giving our own kids meaningful and fun content for the computer face time. It gives me a way to deal with my own desire to encourage my kids to be learning without making it a keep Dad happy kind of thing. This will be a great addition to our rainy day to do list.
I also like the idea you have about home time with a numeracy focus. Most parents have become familiar with read at home, but rarely do the same with numeracy. I just wish I could use this with my older 2.
First, I’d like to say thanks to Chris for recognizing the strengths of DreamBox Learning’s intelligent adaptive learning platform. It’s great to hear about the impact that it is having on not only students, but also teachers and school administrators, with regard to placing kids in their optimal learning zone and achieving math proficiency. It is a very exciting time as we are leading the way in the transformation of how students learn – no matter their age, grade, skill level or class size. DreamBox Learning essentially puts a math coach on every kids’ shoulder and provides formative instruction and assessment with every click of the mouse. And you’re right, DreamBox Learning doesn’t replace good teacher instruction, but rather it reinforces what is being taught in the classroom. Learning is about competency and mastery and DreamBox Learning provides a fun, engaging and adaptive learning environment that helps kids build confidence and thrive. You might also be interested in knowing that many teachers have adopted numeracy tools and exercises from the DreamBox Learning program and implemented them in the real-world classroom. We think that is very cool and speaks volumes to the partnership that DreamBox Learning is forging with educators. Lastly, while DreamBox Learning may not exactly mirror every classroom curriculum, the content is based on NCTM Focal Points and Common Core State Standards. We’re eager to hear more about the results of the 10-school pilot program. Feedback from your kids is welcome, too!
[…] all students in West Vancouver have access to Dreambox (I have written about this program before here). In some classes it is part of the school day, but all students can access it from home, and […]
Hey Chris! I know this post was written 5+ years ago, but I am curious if the Dreambox pilot went anywhere i.e., did it roll out to more schools or did you leave it and look at other things? I am curious to know the direction your schools took with online programmed learning tools such as this and the “whys” or “why nots” that you went in this direction (or not)…
Hi Jim – We ended up with Dreambox in all our elementary schools for 5 years. We did not renew the contract this year and have instead moved to Math IXL in our schools – again an online math program. We still believe there is a value in an online math program that has a school / home component as a supplement / support / enrichment for students. These programs have been very popular with students and parents at elementary. Typically there is some flexible time in schools to use them and then they often continue on at home. Another program that we have seen used is Mathletics which again is a school / home digital math program
Hi Chris – Thanks for your reply and I really appreciate your response. I am really struggling with the issue of active vs passive use of computers and technology with respect to these programs vs. other uses that are more open ended and creative. Should I interpret from your reply that these programs remained in place primarily due to their popularity with students and parents (and I would assume teachers also)? Just like the old “should we teach typing in school” debate, I’m hyper aware of the limited time in schools and am always wondering about the most effective use of time–what activities will result in the most powerful learning… I am trying to keep an open mind about technology-based products that are designed to be content and skills programming for students… I continue to wonder, though, should the computer program the child or should the child program the computer? That is, should the child be shaped by the computer/tech or the computer/tech be shaped by the child? And by “should”, I mean, how should time best be spent that empowers the student and gives them agency? How can they be innovative rather than compliant? What is the role of creative thinking and acting in schools today? So many questions….
Yes, some wonderful points. If our technology is just consumption devices we haven’t really made any positive change. I do see these programs doing some things that would not be possible without the technology – they closely link school and home and provide feedback to teachers and parents (and students) in real-time something that is often impossible in the “old world”. Like you I think that these types of programs should not be the end-game with technology – the far more exciting work in our district is around coding, robotics etc. That said, these programs are part of the “thinking differently” strategy when it comes to what learning looks like – and they can allow for differentiation not possible without the technology.
A good discussion for sure!
Dreambox doesn’t give instructions that actually show how to use games the math isn’t hard at all, but when it is just hard to figure out the game does that even help?