Evaluating Educational Websites

ExploreLearning and the Gizmo

Technology is becoming an increasingly useful tool in today’s culture. It is not surprising, therefore, that its myriad uses include education, particularly in the fields of mathematics and science. Websites and software are constantly being developed to aid in education and to provide support for teachers. One such website is sponsored by ExploreLearning, a company that sells subscriptions to its website in order to help teachers more effectively convey principles and ideas to their students.

At ExploreLearning’s website, which can be found at http://www.explorelearning.com/, teachers have access to applications called Gizmos. These Gizmos are detailed simulations that allow teachers to help their students to explore different areas of math and science in depth and learn in a visual and interactive way. This aids the understanding of students who have difficulty with abstraction and also provokes the interest and inquiry of more advanced students. For example, in the Ellipse Gizmo, a teacher could explore with his or her students the relationship between the equation and graph of an ellipse. A change in one or more of the variables in the equation would translate to a visual change in the graph as well. This visual representation of an elliptical equation can help students get a better feel for the significance of the variables that they see. A teacher could also use the Gizmo to test higher-order thinking skills, inviting students to speculate about what would happen if, for example, the difference between two of the variables were to decrease to zero. The students can make their predictions and then use the Gizmo to check their answers. Not only would this be useful for the question at hand, but it could also provoke further speculation from the students and greater interest in the subject.

ExploreLearning’s website is clearly catered toward the needs of its audience: teachers of middle school and high school math and science. The Gizmos are categorized by name, type, national and state standards, and textbook, allowing easy access to any desired Gizmo. Teachers can also set up their own pages on the website and organize them by class so that their students can have access to relevant Gizmos at home as well. The purpose of the Gizmos is also made very clear: to provide teachers with classroom support and to keep students actively engaged. The applications are designed to either be used with an entire class as a part of direct instruction, or by students individually, with accompanying quizzes to test students’ understanding.

While the applications to teaching and the usefulness of the Gizmos are made quite clear, however, the background of ExploreLearning and its website is ambivalent. There is no information about the author of the website or the company itself, though their credentials are made readily available. These include an empirical study on the usefulness of such classroom tools, testimonials of teachers who have used the software, and a list of the awards that the website has been given or nominated for, all of which imply the validity of the website. Another noticeable absence from the website, however, is any indication of how current the usable Gizmos are. This information is particularly relevant when the rapidity of change in technology is taken into consideration. A user would have no way of knowing when the Gizmos were created, when and if they were updated, and whether or not they would be compatible with the existing software on a given computer.

The absence of information about how current the applications are and about ExploreLearning as a company is somewhat discouraging, but technically the software is both useful and mathematically accurate. Each Gizmo uses the same principles and formulae that most teachers are accustomed to and naturally have the speed and accuracy that accompany any well-written calculation software. In general, ExploreLearning and its Gizmos could be a helpful tool in any math or science classroom, and an effective way to hold students’ attention in a complex discipline such as math or science.