ICT in Maths and SciencePS 2402

Done by:Angela Jossela Bt Siabu (07B0608)

BA in Primary Education

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TOPIC:

Virtual manipulatives in primary school mathematics

SHBIE

Introduction

In the modern educational system nowadays, it cannot be denied that there have been a lot of

changes especially in the curriculum of primary schools and the teaching methods themselves.

One revolutionary matter in our educational system that has indeed benefit us in many ways is

the integration of ICT in teaching and learn. Almost all schools in our country have been

provided with ICT facilities in the form of ICT laboratories, personal computers, interactive

whiteboard and so on. Furthermore, the government has taken steps towards establishing high

standard of education by providing access to the internet. This access to the internet create

further improvement in teaching and learning as teachers could take this opportunity to

maximize teaching with the aids of resources gained from the internet.

One type of educational ICT resource that teachers could use in teaching is Virtual

manipulatives. In this essay I would specifically talk about virtual manipulatives in the teaching

primary school mathematics, highlighting their usefulness and how they affect teaching and

learning.

What are virtual manipulatives and their usefulness?

Virtual manipulatives is very crucial with the existence of ICT based lessons in Primary schools

noawadays. An article from the internet titled Virtual Manipulatives (n.d) describes virtual

manipulatives as an IT-based manipulatives which are an important supplement to and /or

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replacement for certain types of hands-on "concrete" manipulatives often used in math

education. Whereas, Moyer, Bolyard, and Spikell (2002) as stated by CT4ME.net Computing

Technology for Maths Excellence defines virtual manipulatives as "an interactive, Web-based

visual representation of a dynamic object that presents opportunities for constructing

mathematical knowledge". Apart from that, an article titled Learning Mathematics with Virtual

Manipulatives stated by Cited Research Center gives a different definition for this. It says that

“Virtual manipulatives are basically digital “objects” that resemble physical objects and can be

manipulated, usually with a mouse, in the same ways as their authentic counterparts”. From

this we could see that virtual manipulatives gives alternatives for the use of hands-on

experience in the classroom in which with their presence teachers could create a variation in

teaching and another meaningful learning experience for pupils. They often modeled the

concrete manipulatives that are used in a classroom’s hands-on activities for example the use of

Geoboards, tangrams and so on.

Virtual manipulatives are seen to be very useful in today’s education. They basically give the

opportunities for primary school children to learn mathematics in a more interesting ways yet

more efficient towards achieving understanding. The presence of virtual manipulatives is

undeniably beneficial for today’s education especially for teachers and pupils. This is because,

any difficult maths topics could be explained in depth with virtual manipulatives available on

the internet. With the increasing demand of ICT usage in primary schools, virtual manipulatives

become as important as the existing concrete manipulatives.

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Examples and snapshots of virtual manipulatives

The internet becomes the greatest provider for virtual manipulatives in which thousands of

these online activities could be found easily and are free of charge. Teachers should grab this

opportunity to help in assisting their teaching. The following are some examples of virtual

manipulatives available on the internet.

Above is the sample website that provides virtual manipulatives for different levels of learners.

This website could be useful for the teaching of maths even for the Brunei’s primary schools

although some points may not be relevant to our syllabus content. However, the crucial thing is

to give opportunity for children to experience learning mathematics in a various way and create

a great impact towards their understanding.

Example 1

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Below is a virtual manipulative that resembles the Base Ten Blocks of the concrete

manipulatives present in primary schools for the teaching of maths. This manipulatives is useful

for the teaching place value for lower primary pupils. Pupils could use the blocks at the bottom

of the page which represent a thousand, a hundred, a ten and a unit and drag them in the box

as to identify in which columns do the blocks belong to. Teachers could use this online activity

as either an enrichment activity or as an evaluation activity to assess pupils’ understanding. This

virtual manipulative can be found at http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/math1-3/baseten-1.html.

Example 2:

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The manipulative above obviously use to aid in teaching the topic fraction. It can be found at

http://www.primarygames.com/fractions/question1.htm. This activity is quite easy and it is

suggested that teachers use this as extra activity for pupils in the classroom. The colourful page

and interactivity of the site could stimulate pupils’ interest in answering the question and make

them eager to try more of the questions in the site. The questions are also presented in the

form of games and puzzles that could make learning more enjoyable for users named children.

Example 3

Below is another example of virtual manipulatives for primary school maths that is related to

finding the area and perimeter of rectangles. I will also include the pages that follow the

activity. As the activity goes on, the questions posed become more and more challenging and

require pupils to carefully think to solve the problem. This in return stimulates children’s

cognitive skills as well as encourages them to think while doing the activities.

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Example 4

Another example of virtual manipulatives that resembles concrete manipulatives in schools is

geoboard. In schools, teachers would need to have sufficient supply of geoboards to ensure

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Navigation button

that all pupils have the opportunity of learning with these concrete manipulatives.

Furthermore, when teachers decide to carry out activities that require the usage of geoboard,

he/she would have to carry like 20 – 40 of those geoboards to the particular classroom. Other

problems that may arise would be when there is a need of these geoboards by another

classroom. The supply of geoboards may not be enough.

However, with the presence of virtual manipulatives, this problem can be solved by just going

online and find the relevant site as below. This virtual manipulatives can be found online at

http://www.mathplayground.com/geoboard.html.

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Remove shape

Clear geoboard

Measure shape

Add Band

Colour selection

This online geoboard is very userfriendly and considerably easy to use even for children. The

instructions are easy to be understood and more exciting than the concrete geoboards.

Example 5

This final example of virtual manipulatives is a tangram activity. Pupils are given the task to

imitate the shapes shown in the clue and combine the different shapes to produce exactly the

same image as the clue. This activity can be found at

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/area/area.html

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Clue

Rotate shapes

Benefits of Virtual Manipulatives

Virtual manipulatives would definitely create some impacts on the teaching and learning of

maths. We could see that they develop so much positive effects by looking at what they could

do to maths learning. Hence, there are more benefits that we could find by using virtual

manipulatives in teaching rather than the disadvantages.

The first advantage of virtual manipulatives is that they serve as a useful tools for pupils to

develop and deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts. This is stated by Durmus

and Karakirik (2006). Generally, they help to strengthen pupils’ understanding of certain topics

when teachers apply these online activities as enrichments. This is agreeable because many of

the virtual manipulatives provide very challenging questions, puzzles and games that test for

pupils’ skills in problem solving as well as thinking skills.

Spicer (2000) stated by Sharpton cited that, “Virtual manipulatives have the power to make

visible that which is hard to see- and impossible to imagine” . This statement gives additional

proof that the technology provides powerful tools for learning mathematics with

understanding. Whereas, (Bolyard, 2005; Steen, Brooks, & Lyon 2006) also mentioned that

virtual manipulatives help make the abstract more meaningful, increases motivation, and

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student achievement. This is obvious as virtual manipulatives create a more interesting and

enjoyable experience for pupils compare to those of concrete manipulatives.

Clements 1999 as stated by John Meyer mentioned that with virtual manipulatives, students’

work could be saved and work on again and again by printing what they have done and

compiled in either a manual or e-portfolio.

Limitations of virtual manipulatives

However, despite all the benefits that virtual manipulatives give to primary school maths, they

indeed have some limitations when teachers rely too much on virtual manipulatives for

teaching.

The first one would be closely related to the computers and connection problems. To gain

access to the virtual manipulatives online, that particular school would need to have a good

internet connection as well as sufficient numbers of personal computers to support all the

children. An internet connection breakdown that could possibly occur in schools may also

disrupt teachers’ plan on applying virtual manipulatives in classroom teaching.

The second limitations of using these technologies are that, finding the appropriate and quality

virtual manipulatives could be time consuming. Although there are many resources for virtual

manipulatives on the internet, it does not mean that they are all relevant to our primary

schools’ curriculum. Hence, teachers’ role is to wisely select the most suitable one for his/her

class.

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Barnes & Hill, 1983; Wood, Willoughby, & Specht, 1998 cited by Steen, Brooks and Lyon also

presented their concern regarding the use of computers for children’s learning. They cited that ,

“One concern regarding young children using computers is that computer environments are not

concrete, asserting the belief that children construct knowledge through interaction with

materials and people, and that children cannot handle the symbolic representations present in a

computer environment.” At the children’s stage of age, it is crucial for them to gain knowledge

and experience through concrete materials, something that they could see and hold.

Conclusion

The essay has explained further about the use of virtual manipulatives, their benefits as well as

the limitations of them when applied in primary schools’ mathematics classrooms. Although,

they seem to bring about a lot of advantages in maths teaching and learning John Meyer stated

that manipulatives use does not automatically mean better learning. He further stated that, the

manipulatives are helpful but there are no guarantees. Therefore, teachers should not depend

fully on manipulatives just for the sake of attempting for a perfect maths lesson. In order for

the usage of virtual manipulatives to achieve their goals in teaching and learning, it requires

both the efforts of teachers and pupils to connect manipulation with understanding the

notation which describe the actions.

Hence, it is clear that this relies greatly on the wisdom, good planning and efficient implementation of

the teacher to ensure the use of virtual manipulatives could achieve their goals in helping to stimulate

understanding and other educational goals in maths learning.

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Reference

CITEd Research Center, Learning Mathematics With Virtual Manipulatives derived on 14 th April 2008 from http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=151

CT4ME. Net Computing Technology For Maths Excellence - Math Manipulatives derived on 14th of April 2008 fromhttp://www.ct4me.net/math_manipulatives.htm

Durmus, S., & Karakirik, E. (2006). “Virtual Manipulatives in Mathematics Education: A Theoretical Framework derived on 14th April 2008http://wiki.math.yorku.ca/index.php/Durmus,_S.,_&_Karakirik,_E._(2006)._%E2%80%9CVirtual_Manipulatives_in_Mathematics_Education:_A_Theoretical_Framework%E2%80%9D

Fractions activityhttp://www.primarygames.com/fractions/question1.htm

Geometry Board derived on 14th April 2008 from http://www.mathplayground.com/geoboard.html

John Meyer, Governors State University derived on 14th April 2008 from http://www.google.com.bn/search?q=teaching+with+virtual+manipulatives&hl=ms&start=10&sa=N

Measuring the Area and Perimeter of Rectangleshttp://www.mathplayground.com/area_perimeter.html

National Library for Virtual Manipulatives derived from 14th April 2008 fromhttp://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

Sharpton. S (2007), Virtual Manipulatives derived on 14th April 2008 fromhttp://math-resources4u.net/Literature%20review.htm

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Steen, Brooks and Lyon, The impact of virtual manipulatives on first grade geometry instruction and learning derived on 14th April 2008 from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+impact+of+virtual+manipulatives+on+first+grade+geometry...-a0152514990

Tangram gameshttp://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/area/area.html

Virtual Manipulatives - Base Ten Blocks, derived on 14th of April fromhttp://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/math1-3/baseten-1.html

Virtual Manipulatives derived on 14th of April 2008 from http://otec.uoregon.edu/virtual_manipulatives.htm

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