Welcome to our review from the Common Sense Education team! I’m Tanner, and joining me is Chrissy. Every Tuesday, we explore a new learning tool on our YouTube channel. Today, Chrissy has something exciting to share with us.
Chrissy introduces us to ByteLearn, a tool designed to help with math. It’s currently free and aimed at middle school students. Although it’s new and has limited content, it’s a promising resource for math practice. ByteLearn stands out because it provides excellent feedback for students, which is something many math platforms lack.
Let’s take a look at ByteLearn from both a teacher’s and a student’s perspective. Teachers can access a dashboard where they can explore different math units. You can filter topics or align them with Common Core standards to create assignments. For example, if you want to focus on multiplying decimals, you can select a problem set. If you don’t like the problems, you can choose different ones.
ByteLearn offers step-by-step help for students, which can be shown automatically or when needed. There’s also a feature called “differentiated problem set,” which adjusts the difficulty based on how well students have done in the past. This makes learning more personalized and helpful.
Teachers can adjust the difficulty levels of the problems. There’s even a “spicy” level, which is the hardest. Although there were no spicy problems in the current set, you can add them if you want to challenge your students more.
Now, let’s see what ByteLearn looks like for students. When a student works on a problem, they can access help if needed. The tool doesn’t just give the answer; it guides students through the process step by step. This approach encourages learning rather than just getting the right answer.
If a student keeps asking for help, a friendly cat emoji appears to guide them. If they enter nonsense, the tool prompts them to try again, preventing them from skipping straight to the answer. This method helps students engage with the learning process.
Even though ByteLearn’s content is limited right now, it’s a tool worth keeping an eye on. It’s free to try, and it might be beneficial for your class or specific students who need extra help.
ByteLearn could be a great companion to another tool we reviewed called 99math, which focuses on speed and competition. You can use ByteLearn to practice and then test your skills with 99math or similar tools.
For more reviews, visit Common Sense Education and join us every Tuesday on our YouTube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe for more educational content!
Log in to ByteLearn and explore the teacher’s dashboard. Try selecting different math units and see how you can filter topics or align them with Common Core standards. This will help you understand how teachers set up assignments and choose problem sets.
Use ByteLearn to solve a set of math problems. Pay attention to the feedback and step-by-step help provided. Notice how the difficulty adjusts based on your performance. Reflect on how this personalized approach helps you learn better.
Ask your teacher to include some “spicy” level problems in your assignment. Try solving these challenging problems and use the help feature if needed. Discuss with your classmates how these problems differ from the regular ones.
After completing a problem set, write a short reflection on the feedback you received. How did it help you understand the math concepts better? Share your thoughts with your class and discuss how feedback can improve learning.
Pair ByteLearn practice with a session on 99math. First, use ByteLearn to practice a specific math topic, then test your speed and accuracy on 99math. Compare your performance and see how ByteLearn’s guidance helped you improve.
Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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We’ve got a review for you today from the Common Sense Education editorial team. I’m Tanner, and that’s Chrissy. We come to you every Tuesday on this YouTube channel with a review of some kind of tool for learning. Chrissy, what do you have for us today?
Well, today I have something called Bite Learn, and it is all about math. It’s currently free, but I want to mention that it’s fairly new and has limited content, which I’ll discuss. Right now, it’s limited to middle school. You can see that it has three stars, mostly because the available content is quite limited. However, I think it’s a good one to keep an eye on for math practice for students. Not only is it free, but it also has remarkable feedback built in for students, which is often lacking on some math practice platforms.
Let me show you a short tour of what the dashboard looks like from the teacher’s perspective, and then I’ll show you what it looks like from a student perspective. Here, I’m plugged into some sixth-grade math. Again, the content is limited, but here are some of the units you can explore. You can filter by topic or Common Core standards and create your assignments. For instance, if I want to go into multiplying decimals, you can do a problem set, and if you don’t like the problems, you can choose a different one.
Step-by-step help is available, so students can have it there in case they need it, or it can always show up for the student whether they ask for it or not. There’s also a differentiated problem set, which I think is really cool. The difficulty adjusts based on their past performance, which is very helpful. You can add these problems to the assignments you’re going to give.
You can adjust difficulty levels, and there’s a “spicy” level, which I assume is the hardest. It’s interesting how the naming conventions can differ from what we might expect. Currently, in that problem set, there were zero spicy problems, but you could add one.
Now, let me jump over to the student experience because this is what caught my attention. A student has a problem here, and this is where help is available. It’s not necessarily required, and you can also decide if you want the calculator tool to show up. The AI bot is responsive in a way that gives kids step-by-step help, walking them through the process, which is fairly unique.
If a student tries it out and checks, it’s more of a process rather than just getting the answer right or wrong. There are more steps built in, which I think is really cool, especially for a free product. The adaptive differentiated elements add complexity compared to many free programs we often see.
If a student keeps asking for help, the friendly cat emoji will keep guiding them through the explanations. However, if they enter nonsense, they will be prompted to try again, and it doesn’t allow them to jump straight to the correct answer. This approach may help combat homework help apps that simply provide answers, nudging students to engage with the process.
Overall, while the content is limited at this point, I think it’s worth keeping an eye on. You can check it out for free and see if it might be helpful, either for your whole class or for a subset of students who might benefit.
It strikes me as a good pairing with a recent tool we looked at called 99math, which focuses more on speed and competition. You can learn through Bite Learn and then test your skills in class through 99math or something similar.
You can see that review over on Common Sense Education, and of course, visit us every Tuesday here on our YouTube channel for more videos like this. Please subscribe!
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This version removes any informal language and clarifies the content while maintaining the original message.
Math – The study of numbers, shapes, and patterns. – Math helps us understand how to solve problems using numbers and equations.
Homework – Assignments given to students to complete outside of class. – Our teacher gave us math homework to practice what we learned today.
Students – People who are learning in a school or educational setting. – The students worked together to solve the math problems.
Practice – Repeated exercise in an activity to improve skills. – We need to practice multiplication to get better at it.
Feedback – Information given to someone about their performance. – The teacher gave us feedback on our math tests to help us improve.
Problems – Questions or exercises that require a solution. – We solved several math problems in class today.
Learning – The process of gaining knowledge or skills. – Learning math can be fun when we use games and activities.
Difficulty – The state of being hard to do or understand. – Some students had difficulty understanding fractions at first.
Teacher – A person who helps others learn new information. – Our math teacher explained how to solve the equations clearly.
Tool – An object or device used to perform a task. – A calculator is a useful tool for checking math answers.
