I am lucky enough to work in a school with advanced technology access and training. In the modern education system, having access to tools like 1:1 Chromebooks is often considered something that gives students a leg up and improves their education overall. This week's module focus of "equity designer," however, led me to read several articles that re-imagined my idea of what good technology access looks like. It's not just having the technology, it's having the infrastructure in place to use it properly and improve equity across the board. 1:1 computers are great, but without properly trained staff and clearly planned uses that align with standards and performance outcomes, they do nothing to improve student experience and bolster education. In order for technology to improve equity in the classroom, it needs to be thought of as a tool for differentiation, rather than a catch-all technique to teach a concept. As a math teacher, differentiation is something I think about all the time, since this subject can often come with a lot of emotional struggle and intellectual blockades. In the Technology Integration Edutopia article "Effective Technology Use in the Math Classroom," Gina Pincha discusses appropriate use of technology in the math classroom and provides examples of a few tech tools educators could implement to differentiate learning. Before describing the tools, however, she emphasizes the importance of analyzing each tool's relevance in one's own classroom through the Technology Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. This means teachers need to consider what content knowledge students need, what technology knowledge they will need, and how to best teach these two concepts. In regards to using TPACK, Pincha states that "this process is extremely important because without it, the technology may be integrated in a way that is pedagogically inappropriate for mathematics instruction." One tech tool I explored from this article is the online application "Geoboard" from the Math Learning Center. This app is an interactive "peg board" where users can build shapes using digital "string" and then rotate, reflect and translate them to explore similarity and congruence. We are currently doing a geometry unit in math, so this tool stood out to me because of its content relevance. First impressions of this app are that it looks fun, colorful and interactive. After clicking around for a few minutes, however, I felt very confused as to what the educational purpose of this tool was. I found myself clicking around frustratedly trying to figure out what button did what, because none of the buttons have labels. After about ten minutes I was finally able to rotate, reflect and translate shapes in order to analyze them for congruence (essentially making shapes line up perfectly), but I still haven't discovered any other uses for this tool. The visual support offered by this tool was helpful, and I think it would be a great differentiation tool for students that struggle with fine motors skills, since making shapes line up with tracing paper in real life requires the ability to trace a shape exactly and manipulate the paper accurately. I wonder, however, whether the time it would take for me to fully learn how to use the tool's interface and then teach it to my middle schoolers would be worth the potential benefits of this tool. It's a great idea, but before implementing it in my classroom or recommending it to others I would suggest to the manufacturers to improve the usability of the tool by adding some labels and descriptions to the buttons. In all, math apps certainly have the potential to add differentiation to the classroom, but this particular app needs refinement before I would use it or recommend it to others. References Pincha, G. (2018). "Effective technology use in the math classroom." Edutopia. Pollock, M. (2016). "Smart tech use for equity." Teaching Tolerance. Smith, T. (2018). "Digital equity: It's more than just student access." Tech & Learning.
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Emma BooneFirst year 8th grade PBL math/science teacher and graduate student, wondering a bunch and figuring a few things out here and there. Archives
December 2018
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