Prodigy

After seeing the different games in class, I was curious to see if someone was nice enough to incorporate it with specific state standards. Sure enough, Prodigy, a math learning site, calls itself a "Pokemon style game" and is lined up with k-8 math standards in various states. There are also standardized test prep options. The teacher can select to use this every now and then or daily. It allows the teacher to create a programmed lesson plan based on specific standards which could be as long as a day to a whole week. It also gives an estimate of daily time that students will need. The site is adaptive to student learning and allows for easy differentiation. And while the students are plugging away, they are motivated by the fast pace, immediate feedback, and interactions with their online characters and environments. It can also be used as an RTI tool because of the easy reporting that teachers see. There are videos on the website on how to use it for RTI. Additionally, it allows the teacher to see the progress made by the class as a whole and from specific individuals. It has a graph that shows the number of students below grade level and at or above grade level, allowing teachers to easily get a feel for how the class is doing. And based on individual progress reports, I could easily think of a way to link the progress made on prodigy to something in the grade book for classwork.

While I do not wish to teach k-8, I think it is a cool resource. I can definitely see it or something similar to it expanding to high school and other states.  The only downside I can think of is that the teacher has little control over what problems are being provided. When selecting which standards to cover the system generates different problems from a problem bank to give to the students. While this is good for differentiating, it could also mean that there may be a problem you might not have thought to prepare the students for. I could also see it being problematic if a problem covers more than one standard and the students have not had experience with that other standard. However, I think it is certainly an interesting and engaging learning tool and I would give it an overall thumbs up.
(All information taken from Prodigy Game)