There is a mobile app and Tablet, innovative and developed at the University of Algarve (UAlg), which promises to make mathematics stop being a bogeyman for so many students. In addition to exercises, done by teachers, the "Milage Learn+" it has explanatory videos of the subjects that are taught from the 1st to the 12th grade, making it a true "portable and free tutor".
Difficult accounts, equations to make us lose our minds… Who has never, in your student career, had, for once, difficulties in solving an exercise in Mathematics?
Professor Mauro Figueiredo, from the University of Algarve, felt it in the students he had and this was also one of the reasons for developing the application.
"This is a research work that I have been developing for five years, with some students who are in doctoral studies, but the whole process also results from my experience as a teacher for almost 30 years," he explained to Sul Informação.
The idea was then one: «to transform mathematics into something more motivating and easier». Thus was born “Milage Learn+”, financed by the European Union, under the “Erasmus+” program, and where there are about three thousand exercises with different degrees of difficulty, as well as explanatory videos on the subject, with the voices of teachers.
In addition, the contents are all organized by chapters, as if it were a school manual, and can be consulted in a playful way in an object that says so much to young people: o smartphone.
“Nowadays, students are more familiar with video learning. It is a very effective process, especially with students who have more difficulties because they can go back in reproduction», explained the responsible teacher.
But to experience the “Milage” there is nothing better than who can benefit most from it: the students. Therefore, a group of about 100 young people from schools in Portugal, Turkey, Norway and Spain met this Tuesday, March 20, at the UAlg Higher Institute of Engineering, in Faro, under an exchange, to test the application.
Leonor Mendes, 12th grade student at Escola Secundária Pinheiro e Rosa, from Faro, was one of them. At the table, he was solving, in pencil, an exercise given by application. Then, through the application, he took a photo at his resolution and “Milage Learn+” showed him how to solve the account. In addition, the application also explains the steps to solve the exercise.
The young student has no doubts that the application “has helped to get better grades”. “There are many people who are unable to get help outside and this turns out to be a portable tutor. The mobile phone is an everyday tool that we can use anywhere», he said.
But the fun characteristics of the application do not stop there. It is also possible to correct the exercises of your own colleagues and accumulate a set of points for a ranking of the best classified, working as if it were a game.
Helping students, the application turns out to be a help for teachers as well. This is what Palmira Ferreira, a teacher at the Pinheiro e Rosa Secondary School, defends. “Sometimes we need to recall content from previous years and with the application it is possible. We optimize time and work that way more consistently», he said.
This is particularly important for the 12th grade students of teacher Palmira, who, this school year, will take the national exam in Mathematics A. “I feel great support for my work. The application is a link between the teacher and the student, who is at home and can consult the video, listening to the teacher's explanation», he added.
For the teacher, Mathematics is not animal with seven heads, but, on the contrary, a “discipline of hard work”.
And the truth is that Mauro Figueiredo is already aware of the success of the application. “We have had students who had a lot of difficulties at the beginning of the school year and ended up achieving excellent results due to the systematic use of the application”, he told our newspaper.
“Milage Aprender+” is also available in Turkey, Spain and Norway, as they are the partner countries of Portugal in the “Erasmus+” program. In these three countries, however, the application is only available for secondary education.
Anyone who wants to download the application can do so on Google Play or the App Store, free of charge.
Photos: Fabiana Saboya | Sul Informação
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