As a middle school technology integrator, I have recently been using the website Brilliant.org in my teacher’s classroom and have had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I have found the learning games on the website to be extremely engaging and effective at teaching complex concepts to my students. The interactive nature of the games makes them feel more like fun activities than traditional lessons, which has helped to keep my students motivated and engaged.

However, one of the main drawbacks of using a website like Brilliant.org is the lack of social interaction that comes with learning online. While it is certainly convenient to be able to access the games from anywhere with an internet connection, there is no substitute for the kind of in-person interaction and discussion that takes place in a traditional classroom setting. I have found that my students are less likely to ask questions or engage with the material as deeply when they are working on their own, rather than in a group setting.

Overall, while I have had largely positive experiences with Brilliant.org as a teaching tool, I do think it is important to supplement online learning with more traditional forms of instruction in order to provide a well-rounded education for my students. With planning, I would use a combination of online resources like Brilliant.org and in-person classroom activities to create a dynamic and engaging learning environment for my students.

Ideally this would take the form of a project based learning plan where the students were encouraged to find concepts they needed to understand on Brilliant.org. However, Googling for information works really well in those situations and book learning is rarely needed in such a direct manner. For now, Brilliant.org fills a better role than books for required topics and test preparation, and I highly recommend it for that purpose.

article credit:

• James (prompts, opinions, editor)
• ChatGPT (copywriter)
• Splinter (stable diffuser)

prompts:

• copy: write a three to five paragraph review of the website brilliant.org, from the perspective of a middle school teacher feeling positive about the learning games, but negative about the lack of social interaction that comes with using a website to learn instead of learning in a classroom
• image: a grade 6 student using a macbook and a website to study geometry