In preparing for my webinar on Engaging Your Math Students via Technology as part of Connected Educator's Month, I realized that there is an absence of good information on the web about this very critical aspect of good teaching in the 21st century. Instead, like much having to do with technology, there are a lot of lists (Top 5 ways to do this or the 7 essential things about that) but not a lot of specifics that actually give "actionable data" (FYI, I'm defining actionable data as information that is actual usable), especially if you're not already an expert in educational technology, hybrid best practices, or using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.
Well, I'm here to fix that problem.
First, my assumptions: you are someone who's looking to use technology but not really sure how to do it or where to start. In fact, you may not even be 100% convinced you should use technology; as in, you're not exactly sure what it can do for you or for your students. Perhaps you're pretty sure that you want to use technology, have seen enough to know it's both cool AND pretty useful, but you're simply overwhelmed with all the choices. I mean, you've got the entire freaking internet out there, the WORLD WIDE WEB for crying out loud, where on earth does one even start with that??
I'm so glad you asked and I'm even gladder you're here.... step in to my office & let's chat. Sit down; you want some coffee?
Let me answer a few of your questions before we go on: I'll tell you what technology can do for you and your students. Then, I'll give you my tips on the "how to" and "where to start" questions. Finally, I'll give you 3 ways to engage your students via technology (actionable data baby!! oh yeah!).
What can Technology do for You & Your Students?
The list is legion, but here are MY top reasons I use technology and how it's helped me and my students:
- I can get more done and my students can learn more than if we didn't use technology.
- My students are more motivated to "do stuff" (i.e. engage with the content, actively learn) if it involves technology.
- It makes my job easier (e.g. I don't have to repeat nearly as much stuff, fight about grades, or re-teach nearly as much as I did before I started using technology).
- It makes me and my students feel like teaching has finally entered this century (or at least the modern era).
- It allows me and my students to feel connected to a larger group of people (e.g. the world) than what can be accomplished without technology.
- It allows me and my students to tackle problems and mathematics topics that, frankly, would be impossible to do without technology.
- It allows my students more ways to demonstrate what they know (i.e. what NCTM refers to as "multiple means of assessment") - side benefit of this is that it makes my students more responsible for their own learning.
Feel free to drop me an email and tell me your favorite reasons and I'll add to the list as needed!
What's the Best Way to Get Started?
Again, there are multiple answers, but here are MY tips for anyone who wants to start using (or start using more) technology in their classes:
- At first, choose open-source tools. Open-source tools are free (or have free versions available). I recommend this as a starting point because it removes at least some of the limitations related to money (of course, you still have to have some type of internet access, a computer or other device, etc. so it doesn't make it completely available to everyone, but at least it helps cut down on the costs associated with using technology). All of the tools I'm discussing today are open-source so you can start using them immediately by just creating a new account using an email address.
- Start small: set yourself a specific, attainable, reasonable goal. Something like, "This semester, I will use two different technology tools as part of a lesson or assignment." Don't go changin' (... I like you just the way you are!) ah hmm, sorry. Don't go changing everything in one fell swoop, it will just make you stressed and likely cause you to not change anything at all.
- Get trained: learning more about the technology that's available will make you more likely to use it in your classes. Training will also help you see ways that you can use the technology for your own goals instead of having to go by other's suggestions. There are many options ranging from free (online tutorials, fellow educators wiling to share, webinars, etc.) to low-cost (Rimwe's technology training workshops or PD for groups of teachers as well as individual technology sessions are all services that are available; contact us for details) and moderate-cost (Sloan-C's courses are very good; I am a certified online instructor from Sloan-C's program & I can recommend them highly).
- Don't wait: a rookie mistake is to think you have to know everything before you start. You don't! You can't! So, don't wait; start now, today, and take the first step in using technology to engage your students, improve your practice, & enrich your lessons.
Ok, ready to try it? Excellent! Read on....
3 Ways to Engage Your Students via Technology
Finally, we've gotten to the "actionable data" part of the blog! woo hoo!
Here are three tools and three specific ideas on how you can use them today in your class:
1. Capture your students' attention outside of class.
The Tool: Twitter.
What is it? Twitter is a social media platform that allows everyone in the world to tell us what they’re doing right now, in 140 characters or less.
The Idea: Your students are probably already "tweeting" (using Twitter), a quick survey can confirm this, so use that fact to capture their attention outside of class and focus it on your content. How? Simple, have them help you decide on a class hashtag (i.e. #Math101) and then allow them to continue to contribute to class discussions, ask questions, or generally chat (with each other and with you) by marking their tweets with that hashtag. Want an example? Ok, let's say that you just finished a lesson on mirror symmetry. You might give, as part of their HW, a Twitter-based assignment like, "I want you to post an image that has obvious mirror symmetry and tweet a description of what is the line of symmetry along with the image and our class hashtag." Trust me, once you open this door, your students will help you in thinking of ways to include Twitter in your lessons; listen to them! Then, follow the first rule of improv and "say yes" - pick one and try it out. Remember that you can always revise it the next time (and you should! Reflect and revise.). Soon, you will have your own highly customized resource for using Twitter in the classroom. I'd love to hear about it so don't forget to drop me a line (or send me a Tweet).
Speaking of tweeting, once you have joined the Twitterverse, I'd love for you to follow me: @RimweLLC, reply and retweet any of my tweets that you like (you can see many of them posted on the right-hand frame of my site), mark any of your posts with my hashtags #RimweLLC & #resource, or just tweet directly to me @RimweLLC.
2. Assess how well your students are listening & understanding during class.
The Tool: Poll Everywhere.
What is it? Poll Everywhere is an online data collection tool that allows people to respond to questions using their cell phone or computer.
Some background first: If you're a teacher, you may already be familiar with student-response systems (e.g. "clickers") that allow for ongoing assessment and increased participation during class. If so, please skip this paragraph and go on to The Idea. If not, allow me a minute to describe it for you. You know how, in the olden days, when you were lecturing to a class on, say, slope, you'd stop after a few minutes and ask, "So, what IS slope anyway?" Then, you'd wait (for an appropriate amount of time, of course) and, depending upon your class structure, students would either call out an answer or raise their hand in order to respond? Remember how, with that method, there were some problems that keep occurring? You may only hear from the same few students or you may still not be sure if the responses you garnered were representative of the entire class and you had to rely on your memory to recall who participated and what they said. Well, technology stepped in and offered a potential solution for that problem: student-response systems, aka "clickers": small handheld devices that look like a remote control that allow students to vote, answer questions, type responses, and otherwise participate individually. But wait, there's more! These devices send the responses to a program, website, control unit, or computer which then displays the data in various ways ranging from simple (10 students responded, 8 yes, 2 no) to ultracool (avatars of each student displayed on a screen with their answers coming from little dialog bubbles). Teachers who are trained (there's that word again), can design interactive lessons with built-in assessment and participation questions with amazing results. So, why am I not talking about clickers then instead of Poll Everywhere? Simple. Clickers, even the no-frills base models, are not cheap. Plus, they are all different so if like me you've been teaching for many years, it's not so great that you have to reinvent all your stuff if you happen to change schools and they have a different system. The solution? Poll Everywhere!
The Idea: Poll Everywhere can be used for a lot of things, but today I want to focus on how it can be used as a no-cost version of clickers. You can use this tool to immediately "check in" with your students, during class, and help them pay attention while you determine if they are "getting" what the lesson is about. How? Easy, first determine whether you want to use the tool to assess what they know or think before class or if you want to use it to determine how much they remember after class. Next, create a poll. This part is super easy: just go to Poll Everywhere and click Create Poll. Then, during whichever part of your class you've chosen, display the poll for your class and allow them to respond. Here's where it gets really awesome. No special device is needed to respond. Instead, students can use their cell phones and simply text their answer. They can also use their computer, laptop, or tablet to give their response. Still not enough options for you? Ok, here's a few more. You can have students tweet their responses! If privacy is an issue, you can also have a private link to allow for answers.
Want to try it out? Great! Whip our your cell phones or just use your computer and respond to the poll I created just for you:
Other reasons I love this tool: (1) It updates immediately so students (and you) can see the answers as they come in. This is also great for knowing if the entire class has responded ("Ok, I see 10 people have answered, I'll give you another minute to finish your text before we go on."). (2) Unlike clickers, the responses are anonymous which I like because it makes my students more willing to ask questions or admit they don't understand something fully. (3) The cool factor. The first time I use this tool in my class, the students think it's amazing. They are more willing to answer questions if they get to text their answer than if I ask them to write it on paper. (4) You (the teacher) can embed the poll (live updating) straight into your course website, the LMS, Facebook page, or even into your PowerPoint presentation. (5) Did I mention it was FREE? (6) Did I mention you don't need any special equipment or extra gizmos to make it work?
3. Demonstrate anything, in NO TIME!
The Tool: Screencast-o-matic.
What is it? Screencast-o-matic is an online tool that allows you to record audio and video right from your computer screen (aka “screencast”).
Some background: So I'm going to admit right now, this tool is one of my absolute favorites! Seriously, it's the best thing to happen to education since chalk! In the field, and in my textbook chapter, I describe it as one way to use technology in "extending the teaching and learning time on task" and it's awesome! Let me tell you why: this one tool can help you reclaim 50% more of your class time which you can then use for IMPORTANT STUFF. You know, like learning, questioning, exploring, justifying, defending, discovering, and did I mention, LEARNING! How? I'm SO glad you asked! You know how, in the olden days when you wanted to use some "new" thing, like graphing calculators, you ended up spending all your class time on the tedious-yet-necessary how-to? For me, it happened all the time when I was teaching data analysis & functions of best fit for real life data. I wanted to get to the "good stuff": Which mathematical model works best for predicting? How can we tell? How long to we need the model to work? Does that effect which function we choose? What does the correlation coefficient have to do with it? Will the women ever catch up the the men in the 100 meter? and so on. Instead, I was answering questions like, "How did you get the times in the list?" "Why can't I enter the year?" "Where did you go to get that scatterplot?" "Which menu is that from?" "Why doesn't my r show up?" and so on. Definitely NOT the good stuff; also not how I wanted the class time to be spent. Definitely a problem. The solution? Make a screencast and reclaim all of that class time! By creating a screencast, you can then give the link to your students and allow them to learn the how-to on their own, at their own pace, and BEFORE class so that, when they walk in, both you and they are ready to discuss the math, not fiddle with the tools.
The Idea: I use screencasts to demonstrate anything I need my students to know how to do. LIke what? I've created screencasts to show my students how to use their calculator, post to the discussion board on BlackBoard or other LMS, use any software package (Excel, PowerPoint, The Geometer's Sketchpad, etc.), and lots more. Furthermore, these demonstrations now take NO TIME! No time is needed in class for me to show them how to create a graph using Excel. No class time is used to show how to construct a box-and-whiskers graph on the TI graphing calculator. No class time is required to instruct them about how to do their HW assignments on Web Assign. Even better, by moving this "how-to" learning to the web and asking students to take responsibility for the preparation before class, it gives them control over their own learning. It gets you off the hook and puts the onus for preparation for learning where it belongs, on the learner.
Want to see a screencast in action? Excellent! Here's one I created recently to demonstrate using the graphing calculator to enter data into lists, create a scatterplot, and find a function of best fit for data (in this case, exponential growth via an activity with M&M's):
Note that the students can pause, rewind, or replay anything they need. If they miss a step, they can go back, fix it, and not hold up class in the process (or feel embarrassed by it). If they didn't hear what button I pressed, they can watch it on the screen or read it in the key history. They can follow along and check what's showing up on their screen with what's on the screencast to know that they're doing it correctly.
So, there you have it. My reasons for using technology. What I think it can do for you and your students. 3 ideas to get you started. Now, go try it out!
The Solver Blog
Author: Dr. Diana S. Perdue