I think that Crossroads should use Prodigy instead of Dreambox, because it is far superior to Dreambox in many different aspects. For one, Dreambox can’t properly adjust to a student’s learning level. As well as that, many students find Dreambox boring and unrewarding. Prodigy on the other hand, is enjoyed by most students that have played it before. Even though Dreambox is the inferior program, it still comes with a price tag, unlike Prodigy, which is completely free to play. All these reasons can justify why Prodigy is a much better option than Dreambox.

First of all, Dreambox isn’t as advanced of a program as it advertises. The website emphasizes on how Dreambox can adjust to a student’s learning level, but in reality it’s quite the opposite. When a student completes the easy lessons with ease, Dreambox increases the difficulty drastically. What makes Dreambox even harder for some students is that when a student is having trouble with a lesson, Dreambox does not teach them how the math concept works. Instead it just gives them the answer after they get the question wrong enough times. Prodigy on the other hand, provides tools that can help you understand how a certain math concept works. If students playing Dreambox are finding that the lesson are far above or below their grade level, teachers can’t do much about it. They would have to specifically contact Dreambox in order to get special access to the student’s lessons. Prodigy allows teachers to control the both grade level of a student’s lessons, and what subject their lessons are about. This proves that Prodigy’s program is more thought through, and student/teacher friendly than Dreambox.

Secondly, Prodigy is a much more enjoyable experience than Dreambox, which will certainly keep students playing and learning for a long time. Unlike Dreambox, which believes that adding a few reward minigames will make it fun, Prodigy can make the actual math fun. It can incorporate wizards and battles into math, making it so students don’t even notice that they are doing math, but still continue to learn from each and every question. Prodigy also did a better job at coming up with rewards that a student will actually enjoy. Instead of giving a few useless coins and a 30-second mini game, Prodigy lets you beat your enemies, and progress through the game if you get the answer right. Also, Prodigy has worlds that students can join each other in. In order to keep a student’s learning unaltered, Prodigy does not let students help each other. Although, it still lets students test their math skills against each other, which could encourage them to improve their math skills in order to beat their friends in a battle. All of this contributes to the fun factor of Prodigy, and shows that it is a much more entertaining game than Dreambox.

Lastly, Prodigy lets students and teachers access all of it’s educational features for free. For one year, it costs a school $7000 to provide Dreambox for all the students in the school. That’s a lot of money that could otherwise be used for other things. It could be used for clubs, setting up fundraisers, or even some new netbook carts with better computers. If $100 was spent on each computer, three new netbook carts could be provided for the school, making it faster and easier to do work involving tech. Prodigy also offers a paid membership that allows you to have access to more items. This membership is purely for cosmetics, and doesn’t change the educational factor of Prodigy. Prodigy also offers you a free 3 month membership if you share the game with 20 people. Teachers could use this as a reward system. They could share the game with 20 of their students, and give a free membership each month to their best behaved student. If there is a better and cheaper option like Prodigy, then what’s the point of spending money on Dreambox? All of this can positively impact both the school budget, and the learning of all the students in Crossroads.

As you can see, Prodigy is evidently a much better option than Dreambox in all aspects. It is a much better and more thought out program that helps students learn new math concepts. As well as that students can stay entertained while doing their work, instead of counting the minutes until they finish their Dreambox hour. Along with all of that, Prodigy is free, and can save the school lots of money that can be used for much better things than a program that doesn’t even help students with math. So why pay tons of money for a boring and flawed program, when you can get a much more entertaining and educational program for free?