The Best Virtual Math Manipulatives
I’ve seen and worked with a lot of virtual math manipulatives. Virtual manipulatives are great because they offer interaction for students with the math concepts even if they are online learning from home. They also offer students different visuals and representations for the various concepts which helps to increase their conceptual understanding. The problem is that some virtual manipulatives require plug-ins, downloads, or are just not easy to use. If the point is to enhance learning for students with these tools, then they need to be easy to access and use.
With that in mind I want to share with you my favorite math manipulatives - the Didax Virtual Manipulatives. Here’s why I like them so much:
They are FREE! There’s no issues of not being able to afford the tool because there is no cost.
They are ad-free. You have to be careful using free online resources with students since there are so many advertisements on the pages and some are just not appropriate. You don’t have to worry about that with these.
Free corresponding activities are available. You can download activities for the various manipulatives directly from the Didax website to help give you some ideas of how to use the tools.
They are easy to use and intuitive. This seems like it should be a given, but I’ve worked with some other virtual manipulatives that are downright frustrating.
They have embed codes. This is the most exciting part. You can grab an embed code for each manipulative that makes for a seamless inclusion into most LMS platforms or websites. I have embedded these successfully within Canvas. This allows students to interact with the virtual manipulative right on the the learning page without having to click out to an external website. We know that the less times they click out of the learning platform the better.
One of my favorite and underutilized manipulatives is the Rekenrek. If you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone. You can play around it with it below where I’ve embedded it right into this blog post using the embed code! Take a look at these activities for the rekenrek that I downloaded right from the site as well.
