Part D-Findings and implications

Findings and Implications....
Here I will sum up what I found while researching and experimenting on 18 very willing fifth graders with various online math programs.  My implementation varied.  For each program I assigned it as a component of homework.  On the Friday when the homework is due we discussed the program during snack time.  Some groups of students were put on more focused activities, whether it be for the advanced students to push them forward, or the students who needed an intervention with a specific skill.  I am extremely luck y to work in a forward thinking school with a 1 to 1 laptop program for grade 5, it makes this research much easier and the students are skilled enough to easily move from one program to another.
1. Variety is KEY to keep the fifth grade mind.  The program with the best amount of variety is by FAR-Mathletics.  This program hold the students interest with several components including: avatars (which can be changed with rewards from lessons and activities and games), interactive lessons, helpful videos, avatar tutors and Challenge Days.
2. Unfortunately price plays a part in these programs, with the exception of Khan Academy.  Luckily our school has an underused full school account with Mathletics, of which now I have become the local expert, especially as today is World math Day- they are SO into this!  I applied for funding for Gizmo's but the quote came back far too much, even for a single teacher license.  We did get to experience the Gizmo's on a free trial and they are seriously great.  It is not a full program, more of a supplement, but I still sue it for science demo's (I have 4 more days left!!).
3. Novelty plays a huge part in this.  Mr. Nussbaum (used mostly as a supplement) and Mathletics both have a good amount of novelty, Khan academy is very basic, although the map used to chart a students progress is very impressive, even to the fifth grade mind.
4. Teacher usability makes buy in for an entire program much more successful.  Mathletics is a bit fussy when you first start working with it, once you have assigned lessons, checked the lesson, resassigned if not done well and played with the results package it becomes quite intuitive.  Khan's Academy still baffles me with the goal setting.  I have seen in places (blogs or help guides) that teachers (called coaches) can assign goals for students, but I have yet to have done it.  I tried to guide my own students thorough goal setting, but half of them could not do it.  I ended up assigning specific homework (ie: Do lessons on Khan's Academy for 40 minutes during the week, 4 of the lessons must contain the word decimal"). There is no way to check up on Mr. Nussbaum, so this remained an in class activity.
5. There are a plethora of excellent programs out there.  I further explored iXL.com which is a great resource.  I specifically recommend this to parents with students who need extra skills based learning for math. Lure of the Labyrinth is an excellent game to introduce pre-algebra skills.  I already have one student who has mastered almost all the levels (he is in the hospital with a burst appendix, so he reports in on a daily basis with new mastered levels and how to's!).  I will definitely be using this at the end of the year so perhaps some motivated students will play into summer (we also have  a competitive advanced program that the kids need to test into for 6th grade, so math is a big thing here!).