Aleks?

 Author’s Note:

This is an essay describing how the math program, Aleks, should not be used as an individual math educator.  I am focusing on Idea Development and Content.

Should computers be teaching children? Students today achieve high grades in math because they are given meaningless practice, easy tests, and pointless assessments. Districts can give students simple exams as they work their way to high school, but what then? Children in today’s world are no longer being prepared for tests that will later get them into colleges or other further education. I believe that it would help kids improve their math skills if they did not use the Aleks program, but learned information from a teacher and took regular paper tests, not twenty question effortless assessments.

While it is fun, it does not mean that it is effective; there are definite cons of the Aleks program. The first is, since children on Aleks no longer take regular quizzes or tests, they will most likely not be prepared when it comes time to take mandatory high school exams, SAT’s, or ACT’s. This would severely impact our school’s, our state’s, and our nation’s overall average scores on some of these tests.  Another disadvantage is, while there are several topics/units to be mastered on Aleks, students still need to learn other skills that are not taught on it. That being known, math teachers would still be needed to teach students extra topics to complete Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II, etc.  Also, it would become an inconvenience for spatial learners that cannot learn by reading math instructions, but seeing how there are done by a teacher. The last drawback is if children do not learn as much in the mathematics area, America would fall farther behind other nations, such as Russia, China, Canada, Japan, or Sweden. Overall, I believe that there are other ways to learn math that are fun, but still effective.

Even though there are a large number of disadvantages, there are a few advantages of Aleks.  First, the Aleks program is an enjoyable way that children can complete math courses at their own pace.  While it does not cover all material, it could also show teachers or supervisors what the difficulty of math class that students should take.  Lastly, a small benefit of the Aleks program is that students can see how close or far they are from achieving specific math goals.  

I have personally gone through three Aleks courses and will admit that it was a more fun way to learn math.  In one year I got to work independently all the way from Pre-Algebra through Geometry, but I still had to take Benchmark District Assessments (BDAs) between each one.  Since Aleks did not cover all the units necessary for me to take the BDAs, I still had to work with a teacher to complete those skills; which demolishes the current point of Aleks.  Furthermore, every time I completed one of the courses, I had to continue learning out of a book and work on paper study guides.  In conclusion, I would have to say that I am learning math more effectively and at a steadier pace in a traditional math classroom.

In today's improving technology world, there has to be a solution for a way to learn math that was fun, yet still effective. A first solution would be to use Aleks as more of a study tool, than a sole instructional program. That way, students could work on math and complete assignments at home, but actually learn lessons with a regular mathematics teacher at school. Another solution would be to completely take away using Aleks.  While that would not be necessary, it would solve the problem. A final solution would be to find another similar online math program related to Aleks.

 Computers or books; keyboards or pencils; screens or whiteboards; which ones should we be using to teach students math?  Aleks is an online instructional tool that should be applied less and traditional math teachers should be utilized further.  As a personal alumna to the Aleks program, I have to admit that it was more fun, but not as effective.   I would advise to not further use Aleks as a sole mathematics educator, yet a study tool for teachers.   Would you rather complete math courses knowing that you learned all the information you could and that you were ready for the next course, or would you want to rush through math, but forget it by tomorrow?

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