WWW.TECHLEARNING.COM | FEBRUARY 2018 | 21
PRODUCT REVIEWS
By Joan Gal Peck
Quality and Effectiveness: ABCmouse is an excellent program that
enables students through second grade (ages 2–8) to learn at their
own pace. ABCmouse has many features of more expensive programs,
but the basic and very comprehensive program is free to all teachers.
Lessons can be whole class, small group, or one to one. Students
have their own dashboards and learning paths, and teachers can use
their dashboards to individualize student lessons, assign lessons, and
present videos. Both students and teachers can monitor progress at
their dashboards.
ABCmouse covers curriculum topics in: reading, with phonics and
sight words; math; social studies; science; music and sounds; and arts
and color. The program contains books as well as puzzles, quizzes,
games, and printables supporting each student.
Ease of Use: ABCmouse is designed to be both student- and teacher-
friendly. Students use their dashboards
to move onto the next lessons, choose
themes, visit special areas, and set up and
customize their avatars and decorate their
spaces. Teachers use their dashboards to
do everything from planning and selecting
lessons to changing settings for groups or
individuals and printing out companion work.
Creative Use of Technology: ABCmouse
has ten levels and 850+ lessons with more
than 9,000 individual learning activities, including videos, puzzles,
quizzes, and printables. Student levels can be changed easily at any
time. Over 800 grade-level-appropriate books are available online
and are easily accessed with the click of a mouse. Books include
glossaries with audio, pictures, towards things like definitions, and
examples. As students progress, they earn reward tickets that can be
used for avatar clothes, pets, virtual classroom decorations, and other
items to personalize their profiles.Suitability for Use in a School Environment: Teachers can customize
student paths, build lessons, and track student progress easily. Text
is highlighted when read and can be stopped and started as needed.
Students use the same free login for class/library and home. Users can
also switch between English and Spanish with the click of a mouse.
Parent communication can also be in both English and Spanish.
Teachers can use ABCmouse for guided learning and lesson building,
independent learning, sequence learning, customizing student paths, and
coordinating work with existing assessments.
The paid enterprise version, ABCmouse
for Schools, allows access to the full site, with
additional reporting features, implementation
support, and full home access for students.
It complements curriculum offerings with
features including: student management
(ongoing usage reports for districts or
schools); professional development;
curriculum alignment; progress reporting
tools; and full home and school access.ABCMOUSE
ABCmouse.com n Retail Price: The basic ABCmouse program is free to teachers who sign up for the program. A paid, enterprise version, with access to additional features and
onsite or virtual training, is also available. Family (home) subscriptions available for $9.95 per month. n Products available: ABCmouse for Teachers (free program); ABCmouse
for Schools (paid full access)TOP FEATURES
- Students can access all lessons and activities through an
easy-to-navigate dashboard. - The program keeps track of all books read and the total
number of lessons and activities students have completed. - The teacher dashboard makes it easy to set up student
profiles and create or choose lessons for students’ paths
through the program.
OVERALL RATING:
ABCmouse is an
excellent tool that’s
easy for both teachers
and students to use and
enables Pre-K–2 students
to engage in learning at
their own pace.