The use of virtual manipulative in school

On last Saturday, we in a group of three had a chance to teach mathematics

using ‘virtual manipulative’ in Sekolah Rendah Sengkurong. We chose year 5C, the
former class of one of my group member. There were 31 pupils out of 36 in the
class. We were using ICT room with only 10 computers available and a projector. As
all the pupils came in the class, we asked them to sit in groups of three and a group
of four for each computer available.

I started the lesson by reviewing back what they had learned about adding
fraction with the same denominator since they already learned the topic. I asked
them how they add fraction with same denominators. They answered my questions
by telling me that they add the numerator and copy the same denominator. Then I
asked them if they can add fraction with different denominators. Just few pupils
answered ‘yes’ but do not have ideas how to calculate it. But I heard one or two
pupils said that the denominators should be changed to make the denominators the
same so that the fraction can be added. I agreed with the statement and asked the
pupils to look at the white board.

Using the virtual manipulative from the web side (National Library.com), I
showed them how to answer the question on adding fraction with different
denominators. I started with the easer question first then move to harder then
hardest. In this activity, they are asked to increase or decrease the two
denominators, so that the fractions become fractions with the same denominators.
By looking at the diagrams, we can see that how it was divided when we increase or
decrease the denominators.

After showing how to answer about 4 questions, I asked for volunteers to try
answering the next questions. I gave a chance for 3 pupils to try each question
using teacher’s computer respectively and they did answer the questions very well.
We then grouped the pupils into 3 groups of 6 pupils and a group of 7 pupils. Since
time constrain, we asked the pupils to try to answer one question each for each
large group. Then the groups were separated into small groups of 3 and a group of
4. They only had a chance answering one questions each. We did monitor the pupils
while they were doing the activity. So far they did not have any problem in
answering the questions since they were helping each other. We realized that they
only focusing on the diagrams on how to make the denominators the same,
although earlier I already mansion how to find equivalent fractions, most of them
still depending on the diagrams.

To find out the pupils understanding on the lesson, we gave them 5 questions
in a piece of paper to each pupil. We gave them 5minutes to answer the questions
since there was not enough time left. From the short exercise, we found that only 1
of them got full mark. 4 pupils got 4 marks and 5 pupils got 3 marks. There were
also 4 pupils got 2 marks and 1 mark respectively and 13 pupils got no marks.

The result shows that the lesson was not successful. From my point of view, it
was because of limited time and not enough computers that can support each of
the pupils. I think that if we want to use virtual manipulative activities, we need one
whole lesson with 2 periods so that the pupils can try more than 5 questions each
and need more guided practice by the teacher because some of the pupils do not
have any experience using the computer. We can give them the exercise for the
next lesson or give it as homework.

With enough computers for each pupil will give them chances to try many
questions until they see the pattern of the lesson. For example in the above lesson,
after the pupils answer the questions many times individually using the virtual
manipulative, they will realize that there are shortest ways to make the
denominators the same by finding the equivalent fractions instead of dividing the
diagram by increasing or decreasing the denominators. Then they will think of a
number that can be multiply by the numerator and the denominator for each given
fractions so that those fractions will have same denominators.

My points are the pupils should do the activity individually so that they can
explore more with more guided practice and enough time to do more exercise (try
and errors), then the lesson will achieve the objective.