There are a lot of online math systems to help students through one of school’s toughest subjects (if not science). Each one proclaim
s they have the way to teach students while having fun, in ways that are aligned with state and national standards. How do you decide what is best for your class? Here are guidelines, culled from top education sites like Edutopia, Google Education, Educational Technology, and EdWeek that are valuable when evaluating any website:
- free or small fee
- support the ‘4 C’s’–creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration
- offer compelling content (this is subjective; ‘compelling’ varies teacher-to-teacher and student-to-student)
- are not distracting or overwhelming in colors, music, or activity
- offer levels that become increasingly more difficult, providing differentiation for student needs
- stand the test of time–do students stay engaged even after playing it over and over
- positive parent reports
- few ads–and those that are there do not take up a significant portion of the screen
- intuitive to use with a short learning curve
- encourage independence
- easily applied to a variety of educational environments
- doesn’t collect personal information other than user credentials or data required to operate the app
- includes age-appropriate content
- fulfills intended purpose
- aligned with Blooms Taxonomy, Common Core, ISTE, or other state/national/international standards
- received awards/citations
Here’s one I think meets all these basic requirements as well as makes students want to practice their math:
Free (fee upgrade to Premium)
Prodigy is a free, adaptive math game for grades 1-7 that integrates Common Core or Ontario math into a role-playing game using a Pokemon-style wizardry theme. Students complete math questions to level up (become more powerful) and ultimately defeat Crios, Prodigy’s main antagonist.
Based on the student’s profile and an invisible diagnostic run during the preliminary tutorial, students are placed at a math level. As they play, question difficulty is increased or decreased depending upon their answers and facility with the skills. If a student struggles with a concept, following questions will backfill the necessary skills.
As the student works through the math problems, many lessons (but not all) include virtual manipulatives to help solve the problem:
These include a speaker to say the question, a hint button to provide help, detail on the required skill, and a drawing tool to work through the answer. These encourage students to build their own problem solutions in a way that works for them rather than relying on a teacher or parent.
The game includes over 300 math skills, broken down by grade level. This is Grade 3:
Prodigy’s data indicates that over 1,000,000 student users and 50,000 teachers have signed up since opening its doors. Parents can register for free and track their child’s progress.
Set up is easy. You join as a parent or teacher. Once your account is established, add your class, create/review assignments, view student progress, get help, evaluate learning materials, and more.
Your students are assigned user names and passwords which they then use to log in from their digital device.
Students start with a guide called Noot who explains how to progress through the game play. From there, student play is self-managed and self-learned.
On the game screen, students see avatars of other students playing at the time. They can challenge one or play by themselves.
Pros
I like that the site offers prepared parent letters to save teacher time and get parent buy-in for this game-based math program. The letters do a great job of sharing the purpose of the Prodigy math site and explaining how parents can get involved in learning.
I like that the site reminds students NOT to use their real name when creating their avatar and why. Youngers often don’t understand the importance of online privacy.
Teachers don’t have to be experts to have students use this game (as opposed to Minecraft where it really helps if the teacher knows what’s going on).
Cons
The push for Pro features comes early in the game. It’s not onerous and easily avoided. I’m not sure I’d even notice it after extended play. Since the price is over $50 a year, I was pleased that being a premium member had no impact on the educational value of the game.
Insider tips
The website tutorials at times discuss ‘Ontario expectations’ and ‘Ontario aligned’. There’s an opportunity during set up to select your standards, such as Common Core.
Assignments can be applied to all or some students, allowing you to differentiate for needs.
Educational Applications
The teacher dashboard provides thorough reports on which students are practicing what math skill and how well they are doing.
Math skills addressed in assignments can be timed to appear exactly when those topics are covered in class and disappear when those lessons are over. Students have no overt knowledge of what those skills are because they are invisibly integrated into the gameplay. They learn math as they play and cannot progress until it is mastered. Because of this, the gameplay can be used for both formative and summative assessments.
Conclusion
I was introduced to this math game through an email from the company. Now that I’ve reviewed it, I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of it before. I’m a big believer in the gamification of education; Prodigy makes that work brilliantly for math. Here are a few comments from teachers who use it:
“The Prodigy program has been an invaluable tool to my students and me. My students are motivated to practice their math skills in a fun and interactive way both at school and at home. The greatest benefit for my students is that they are able to work on skills currently being taught in class and Prodigy automatically adapts based on their performance. The progress reports highlight individual strengths and needs. This helps with my planning and differentiation for my students.” – Ivan Dublin, SERTBrimwood Blvd. Jr. P.S.
“What I really love about the Prodigy program is the feedback that I get in terms of what the students know and where they need to improve. I also love the fact that I can see what questions were difficult and how the students answered them. I believe that students have improved their confidence in all areas of the math program. They are so excited to play and learn!” – Sue McCulloch, Grade 3/4 Northport Elementary School
If you use this game, I’d love to hear your thoughts? Is it as good as it sounds?
Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
I want to play the game.
All you need is a membership. If you don’t have it at your school, check with your parents.
It is no fair because when I start to battle then it keeps on logging off and my score goes down!
The membership is $60 at the “discount” rate, for a game the kids are required to play in public school. Without it, kids miss out on over 50 exclusive items including wands, pets, hair styles, and colors. Their eggs don’t hatch as quickly, they are denied access to the Dark Tower and Firefly Forest, and they level up more slowly. And those without a membership are painfully aware of these penalties.
My son’s 5th grade class just stated using (playing) this game. This morning he hit me up for the premium membership….. Al little insidious? I would be much quicker to say yes, if a portion went back to the school, like the scholastic books model.
I had that feeling too when I tested it–early push to upgrade. Sadly, I see that a lot now with education programs.
I am a kid and I LOVE prodigy!
You’re exactly who I want to hear from. What’s so great about it, Jake?
I tried to watch the video of the 2nd grader and got the message “this video is private.”
Ah. They must have changed the settings. Darn. It was good. I’ll see if I can find another. I’ve removed it to respect their privacy.
I have introduced this in my tech room from 1st thru 4th as a way to practice usernames and passwords. For the free version, I feel it works very well. There are membership requests, but it’s not too intrusive and you can make it go away easily.
The games are a lot of fun and the students like that they can grow their character to learn wizard skills. Of course they have to use math skills for that to happen and they seem to have no problem. The layout of how to do the math work takes a little bit of time for them to use the tools. It has a voice to help them read the math work, and on screen manipulatives to help do their work.
You can choose for each student what grade level and curriculum the math problems come from. (ex. common core, even canadian standards).
It keeps track of their math work for you to view. I impressed with all the data they gather for teachers and that the price is free.
Now I have to find a site that has similar style to this and Manga High, but for writing/language arts. Do you know of any Jacqui?
Have you tried Sports Network? It covers reading skills with a sports theme. Also, Dimension U gamifies literacy topics, though it’s fee-based. Here’s a complete list of simulations/games and academic topics.
My children just started using Prodigy at their school (3rd, 5th, and 7th grades). All three love it! I’m a 5th grade teacher and I plan to bring it to my classroom, as well.
Good to hear. I’ve heard similar feedback from lots of teachers.
I am a teacher who is currently considering offering this to my math classes. Do you know what the fee is that is associated as a school?
Sorry for the late reply, Katrina. The paid version is $5-$10 a month, but the free version includes all of the educational content, just less access to some of the game parts. Definitely start free and see if that works for you.
Hi Jaqui, When I buy the membership for 60 bucks a year? Does this unlock stuff for my students? or do they still have to buy a membership individually to get the bonus content?
Jeremy–My understanding is it does, but you might want to check with the contact on the website. I’m sorry for being so vague!
I just signed my students up for this game two weeks ago and it has changed my classroom. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of it before. You know a game has to be awesome when its got an educational aspect and the kids are playing it at home. I just wish there was something similar for my language arts class.
It is amazing, I completely agree. There is one literacy game that caught my attention. It’s called Sports Network and gamifies the process of close reading for students. You might find it useful.
I am a special education teacher who has started using Prodigy this year with my students (mostly second and third grade boys). They absolutely love it, and when I pull up reports I can see the areas that they are struggling in and their progress. I can use this data to measure progress on IEPS. My only complaint is that there are no direct alignments to the the Texas TEKS, which would really make my data collection easier. Otherwise, the kids love it, don’t really get bored with the gaming aspect, and are making progress. I do have one kiddo who purchased the game because he was very hooked in to the badges and other items you could earn. His mom thinks it’s well worth it if he is motivated to learn.
Good to get your feedback, Kaye. I know the developers are looking at additional alignments. It was one of my questions when I wrote this review.
I don’t have Prodigy for homework, but I love it!!
If your teacher’s like me, she’d welcome your ideas on how to make math learning more fun.
I can’t agree more!!! Prodigy is the best game ever!!! 🙂
What does the membership actually include my son asked me to purchase it and I’m not sure if it’s actually worth it. Thank you
Hi Stacey
It doesn’t include extra educational material, but–and this is from their website–it does include fun stuff that probably keeps kids playing and learning:
I like prodigy- sort of….
Any thoughts on why?
I am a teacher who used Prodigy this past school year. It was a great addition to my 6th grade classroom, but some of my students figured out how to set up a teacher account and assign topics to the other students. Instead of my students doing the 6th grade skills I assigned, they were working on 1st grade skills assigned by other students. I hope Prodigy figures out a way to distinguish actual teacher accounts from fake student-made ones.
That’s a quirk. Thanks for posting about that. I haven’t heard about that before. Anyone else have this problem?
My child wanted me to subscribe. Although I was not sure, I did subscribe for a month. She used it for about three weeks and stopped using that. Seven months later I realized that they have been charging my credit card every month. When I contacted them, they refunded for 2 months and told me that their website clearly state the automatic renewal.
It was like the old cigarette adds. If you don’t read the small prints, you are screwed. When you signin, it doesn’t give you an option to optout from automatic renewal and if you don’t cancel; you are screwed.
I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve had similar experiences with other products–not this one, thankfully. Automatic renewals seem to be the way it’s going.
I was a skeptic of the game. But my computer program for math was cancelled mid year so I decided to make accounts for my 25 3rd graders mid-year. I’ll be honest, I was so scared that the students would end up just buying wands or walking around and not really do the math … But this was not the case! They are constantly doing math problems! And they love it. I don’t even have to assignm physical math homework. I assign Prodigy Math and everyone does it AND more. I love it. Also, I get to do small groups while the rest of the class is differentiated on Prodigy.
Great feedback, Arline. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
How many of you use the iPad app? I used it last year just by creating a link for my students on my webpage. However now all students have IPads. I’m wondering if the app is necessary.
That’s a good question. I haven’t run through the Chrome app in its entirety so am not sure what the differences are. I hope a reader weighs in.
I would like to know from other teachers if the wizard content is accepted by parents.
I have had one parent not allow her child to play at home because of the spells and magic, but surprisingly she allowed him to play at school.
I have been using this for about a month with my third graders and they absolutely love it and I am thrilled. I use only the free version and tell the students to ignore the requests. It doesn’t change the game for them. My first unit test grades improved so much I couldn’t believe it. My students constantly ask to play this and they also play at home which I am thrilled to here. I too was searching for a very similar game for ELA and will check out your suggestions.
I’m glad to hear this works so well. It is a site I constantly recommend to teachers I work with. Good luck in your new school year!
What ELA games did you find? I am looking for some!
My daughter says she can battle with her friends is this safe? Can other people leave comments or message my daughter on this app?
I would like to know about this too! There seems to be some way through symbols and messages my daughter is communicating with other players in the game. I would really like to know about online safety issues or precautions with this game.
I introduced Prodigy last year in my tech lab. Grades 2/3 love it, but the older kids not so much. It is perfectly safe and we only play the free version. The students can “battle” each other and love it! Would highly recommend this to anyone!
That upper age range seems to differ for teachers. Good to hear your feedback.
Is there any way to turn off the music????????? Utterly annoying.
Hi Angie
This link explains how to do it:
https://prodigygame.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205184306-How-do-I-adjust-sound-settings-in-Prodigy-
Thank you!
I’m doing some research into how learning transfers from the Prodigy game to paper pencil tests or EQAO 🙂 I am having a hard time finding any research journals that specifically test out Prodigy. I do use it in my classroom and the kids love it. I’m really hoping that the learning is happening and that is why I am doing some research.
They have two articles about this: https://prodigygame.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000616266-Is-Prodigy-research-based-
how do you save?
i am a little girl that loves prodigy.
Thanks for sharing that, Emma. I love hearing about websites kids your age enjoy.
Our school started using Prodigy a month ago, and my 2nd grader logged in at home last night. I was shocked and VERY frustrated with the continual pop-ups suggesting becoming a member. And then a pop-up for a $14.95 purchase. This is ridiculous! Why is a public school using an online game that is pay-to-play? I heard all night long and again all morning all the things he can’t do without a membership. Someone is making a killing on this game. And to find out it is aligned with Common Core is absolutely infuriating. Just when my respect for public education is low, they went even lower.
I don’t like the pop-ups either, but haven’t heard a lot of complaints about them. Thanks for weighing in.
it doesn’t have to be aligned to common core- that option is chosen at the teacher level.
Our homeschool group does a group buy where we only pay about $30/yr for each student. I’ve never organized it, so I’m not sure on the minimum, but a wonder if a class or grade of students would be able to do that if enough opted in?
Interesting feedback, Jessica. I hope someone weighs in with their experience.
Why do non-members not get the cool stuff but the members do????. It is not fair we should be able to wear the same things as the members.
-I Want To Be A Member Girl???
I agree!
I absolutely love prodigy. My own kids were using it and loved it. I have never seen them so excited about math. I then signed up my 5th grade GATE class and they are so engaged when they play it. They have been using if for three months and do not get tired of it. Several of my students have paid for the full membership, but the students who have not still have fun on it.
Prodigy is the best game ever I would like it if it was much more funner!
yeah thats true!
what are the new updates?Like the academy.
Prodigy is fun and all but the math gets REALLY hard depending on how far you get and the monsters multipy in numbers as you fight them! I’m in SkyWatch and have to fight 4 monsters in a row that are a higher lvl that I am! Plus every question is a two step question that makes no sense at all!!! STOP MAKING IT INPOSSIBLE!
I am a tech lab teacher. My students have accounts through their individual homeroom. One students loves it so much her guardian wants to buy a membership. Is it worth it and does she get more content this way? Also, can strangers contact her through this game? Her guardian is a bit leery.
There is no additional content–either way addresses all the math skills–but the membership version has more of the add-ons:
Here’s the link to that page: https://prodigygame.com/Membership/
i’m a 8 year old girl, i play prodigy! its so much fun!! i have a membership and everything 😀
I’m glad you’re enjoying #ProdigyGame, Sara!
Prodigy is really engaging. I love the way it works, hiding math between the fun adventures. My class teachers don’t let us use it in class yet, but I have this little group of friends where sometimes we gather at one of our houses after school and play Prodigy.
-A 5th grader
Good to hear, Allyra. Keep that math interest going!
I don’t like prodigy because it keeps on asking for membership.
The game is great and my son loves it. Although the level of questions is getting to be a little repetitive for him. The bigger problem is the cost of the members area. I just can’t see the value in paying 60 a year for some extra game items. At the same time I listen to my son lament about all the cool things some of his classmates can do since they have the paid version. I feel bad but it’s a lot of money.
I agree. My son loves it, but is always asking if he can upgrade to the paid version. I constantly hear him telling me all the things he CAN’T. $60 just seems like a lot for no additional educational value. Other than all the pop ups to upgrade I love this program.
I see your point. I guess making the math learning more fun is the draw of Premium.
i love the game
Sorry if this is a repeat question. Does Prodigy allow kids to chat? I noticed it showed kids who are also currently logged in and playing.
I am a 7th grader and although I like this game, I feel like you need a membership for almost everything. You need a membership to change your hair color. I feel like that is pretty dumb in my opinion. Also I went to the prodigy website today and noticed that they added a feature to move into a new house, but you need a membership. For a lot if things you want to buy you need a membership and there is really nothing else for me to buy because everything you need a membership for so I’m just have a bunch of coins and don’t know how to use it. I don’t if the prodigy game makers realize this but I don’t think that’s a good feature that you need a membership to change your hairstyle or color.
@Jayla I agree im not a member and can barely get anything they should either lower the price or let non members have access to way more things.
I totally agree!!! @jayla As a non-member you can’t do anthing
I wont to know how to get the fsa pat
Hello, I just started checking this out for my 4th grade class. I have a few questions. When you get an answer wrong is there a way that it explains what the child did wrong? Or shows them? All I see is the answer given. There is a little generic hint button, but nothing specific to the question. Is this a paid only feature?
When my students play on the iPad they are often faced with a white screen which we can’t get past without quitting the game and having to log in again….I don’t know if anyone else has found this?
My daughter is able to access prodigy through the school. What is the advantage of paying a premium membership?
My experience is more content and less ads. I hope that helps!
Hi! I am looking for something fun and engaging to strengthen my students’ fact fluency this year…like Reflex, only not as pricey. Can Prodigg be manipulated to target math fact fluency specifically??
I don’t think so. I think it’s more for general learning.
Try this link:
https://askatechteacher.com/great-apps/math/automaticity/
These focus more on automaticity.
I made an account just for me and chose a sixth grade level to see what my students would see. Worked just three or four problems and was suddenly “leveled up,” along with the opportunity to get a cool-looking uniform. I clicked on the uniform, thinking of a particular student who would love its design, and was immediately offered the choice of either a monthly or a yearly plan, which took me by surprise since the advertising had said something like, “Prodigy is free. Forever.” No, if my student completes only four problems and then is immediately confronted with a commercial suggesting that she can get cooler stuff if she makes a purchase, that is not “free. Forever.” Good academic products do require good design, qualified academic advisers, and qualified builders to create the program, and qualified workers of any kind need to be paid a competitive wage — I fully appreciate and support that issue — but this product is being advertised as free. Forever. It’s misleading. I don’t want my students’ families being bombarded with demands for cooler uniforms in a digital environment when they can’t afford to buy their kids lunch in reality.
I have heard some complaints about that but not as many as I would think if it happens so fast. I do see your point.
Prodigy is very engaging, but you see a lot of repeat questions. One of the questions I saw was simply wrong. I was supposed to estimate the volume of a cylinder, and the “solution” told me to round 1.5 to 2, then square it. This changes your answer by a factor of nearly 2 (2.25 vs 4). I clicked on the answer close to the actual answer, and I got it wrong. The “correct” estimated answer was nearly twice the actual volume of the cylinder. Khan Academy has less involved game mechanics, but the actual math practice is much much better.
Good feedback, Justin. I’ve contacted the Prodigy folks to get their input. Hopefully, they’ll address your concerns soon!
My first grader LOVES it. It is frustrating that it logs out as soon as the ap is closed though. As he moves from my phone to his to an iPad to the school….It is annoying to have to re-do in again and again.
My kids have learned that to achieve what they want to do in the game they should answer as many questions as fast as they can.
So the way that they play is if there is a question that takes time to answer, they will intentionally get it wrong so that they can get a easier question. They figured out answering one long question correctly is not as efficient as answering a long question wrong and several short questions correctly.
I think that here needs to be more to homework then prodigy. I also believe that he reports are not representative of what one knows because of how the game is played.
My older child figured out hat if there is a multiple choice on a volume of a prism, the largest answer is the correct one.
Clever kids. Thanks for your insights.
Hi there — I notice a number of questions about whether kids can ‘chat’ with or otherwise message strangers through Prodigy, but those questions are never answered.
What are the parameters of the ‘friends’ function on the game? How does it enhance the game play, and what should parents be aware of with this function? (eg. is it just for contacting others in the students class/group, or people outside their known community? What is the nature of the interaction(s)?)
I apologize for not being able to help with this. I’ve asked Prodigy to come visit, help us out, but I don’t get a response.
Thanks, Jacqui — I suspected that was the case, but thought I’d give it a try. My son has been playing Prodigy at school and at home, and has just been introduced to the ‘Friends’ option. I was surprised this hadn’t been covered by his teacher in the information she provided either to us or to him. He mentioned accepting ‘friend’ requests from people he doesn’t know, but has no idea, for example, how it enhances his game play.
As a general rule (and I bet this won’t surprise you), we’d never allow students to interact with strangers. Like you, I’m surprised the teacher didn’t cover this by shutting it down or at least telling students to never accept. I’m not judging the teacher, either–there are lots of reasons why.
I didn’t know about the chat feature and just asked my 3rd grader. They DO chat with STRANGERS. In PUBLIC SCHOOL. Can someone please explain why this is even possible?