Use of digital materials in primary school 3rd grade mathematics teaching: Example of Bitmojy application

Teachers have a great responsibility in preparing Mathematics lesson activities according to the characteristics of primary school students, who are also called alpha generation today. The aim of the use of materials in educational activities is to ensure the active participation of the learners in the lessons, to contribute to the reasoning skills of the students, to increase the interests and desires of the learners about the activities. Obtaining these results is directly related to the selection or design of materials according to student characteristics. Considering that the alpha generation is more prone to digital concepts, basing the materials on a digital basis will help to achieve the desired result. In this study, which was designed in the form of an action research, it was aimed to increase the mathematics lesson multiplication and division skills of primary school 3rd students. In order to achieve this goal, a virtual classroom has been designed using the bitmoji application and google slides. In this designed virtual classroom, the avatar teacher aimed to increase the cognitive skills of the students regarding the acquisitions of multiplication and division with different digital materials, exercises and digital games, and to provide a permanent and meaningful teaching. In this context, firstly, a pilot application consisting of 3 action plans was made. Then, a total of thirteen action plans were created, eight for multiplication and five for division, and lesson activities were organized in line with these action plans. Data were collected with teacher, researcher and student diaries and semi-structured interview form. After the applications, the learners were provided to write their answers to the semi-structured questions by the focus group interview technique, and the data were obtained in this way. Content analysis was done on the data obtained, codes were made, and themes were created from these codes. From the findings of the research, it was concluded that using digital materials in mathematics teaching increased students' academic success and participation in the course, helped students develop positive attitudes towards mathematics and attracted students' attention. Keywords: Mathematics teaching, bitmoji application, digital material