How much Tech is the right amount of Tech?

 

After this crazy year of distance learning, I think an important question to ponder is: 

How much Tech is the right amount of Tech?

It's possible that there may still be schools doing some form of hybrid learning, and I feel like the looming threat of hybrid/distance learning will still be present this school year, in this ever-changing and unpredictable pandemic environment.  My school district plans to open fully in person in the Fall, possibly just with masks, and then see where the year takes us.   

These various types of learning all come with their own constraints, and some of them predicate the use of technology more than others.  So, it is important to consider them when determining the amount of technology to use. 

Hopefully, you can look back on this past year and think that you learned something about edtech.  I know a number of teachers that had averse feelings towards technology prior to distance learning, that were more or less forced to begin using it. There were probably more teachers though, that were novices with technology, that have now tried and experienced various amounts of apps and tools and become somewhat competent with edtech.  

Now that we have seen what technology can do, and how it can be used to enhance student learning, hopefully more teachers will incorporate it more often.  It still may be a challenge to find the right balance, but the right amount of tech to use should be based on a few considerations.  The main things that I think about when choosing which edtech to incorporate are: 

• Will it enhance the lesson to help reach learning goals?
• Will it make the lesson more engaging and interactive?
• Will it help to accommodate the material for more equitable access?
• Can it give students useable feedback in real time?
• Can I use it to help collect formative data? 

I have a variety of sites that I use regularly, each with a different purpose. I try to be consistent with which sites I use for which purpose to streamline things for my students.  You may have different favorites, but probably similar considerations.

Will it enhance the lesson to help reach learning goals?

Being a High School math teacher, the main sites that I use to enhance a lesson are Desmos and Geogebra.  I really need sites in which both the students and myself can easily type with precise mathematical symbols and sites that can compare multiple representations of functions side-by-side. Both of these sites allow students to easily explore relationships and make connections, in all types of mathematical concepts falling under the realm of algebra, geometry, and beyond. I definitely prefer Desmos though, as it provides a platform to create complete lessons in their activity builder.  I also love the ability to pace and to see live thumbnails of all student work, leave feedback and share student's work.  I feel like Geogebra is more useful for interactive applets to explore concepts, which also have their place, but typically Geogebra will not be the platform for an entire lesson.  

Here is a link to my collections on Desmos.

Here is a link to the Mathematics Vision Project Interactive Applets on Geogebra.

Will it make the lesson more engaging and interactive?

If my goal is increasing engagement, providing additional practice or to review, then I choose a different type of edtech.  My favorites are interactive slide decks through sites like Nearpod  and Peardeck.  Most often what I do is either take a lesson straight from the Open Up High School Mathematics curriculum and recreate it on one of these sites, or I create my own to fill in whatever gaps I feel the students may have and solidify understanding of key concepts.  I prefer the ease of use of Peardeck, it is very easy to make lessons directly in Google slides with their add-on.  Also, I prefer their teacher dashboard to that of Nearpod. However, I prefer Nearpod for it's wider variety of widgets and activity choices that can be added to slides such as collaborative boards, match, and "time to climb".

Gamification sites are also great for this purpose, I like to use ones such as Kahoot, Quizizz, and Blooket.   These types of sites try to make kids feel like they are playing a video game while they are learning, they have avatars, memes, challenges, redemption prizes, leaderboards and some healthy competition.  I would use these interchangeably just to keep things fresh, they each have their own different experience that they create that makes them fun and engaging.

All of these sites offer both free and premium versions.  Some are worth paying extra for, while others still give teachers plenty of options without any cost.

Here are some links to sample lessons on these sites, that I use to supplement the Open Up High School Math curriculum:  Nearpod,  Peardeck,   Kahoot,   Quizizz  and  Blooket.

Will it help to accommodate the material for more equitable access?

Another reason I choose to incorporate technology into a lesson, is if it helps to accommodate the material.  In any given classroom there are numerous learning styles, learning disorders, content gaps, and other things that can get in the way of learning, such as language barriers.   There are so many things to consider when planning a lesson.  That is why I tend to a Universal Design approach, in which I try to plan lessons that will be best for any and all students.  The modalities that I incorporate are with the intent of making it easier for all students to focus on the learning and not get bogged down or lost in the process.  

One of my favorite technology sites for adding digital accommodations to lessons is Desmos.  I have attached some examples below.  Things I have used desmos for are: exploring transformations of a parent function on a graph and a table; demonstrating area models with manipulative digital algebra tiles for those that struggle with fine motor control; and I love using templates to help students organize complex material and love even more when we can use color with a purpose in those templates to help students take ideas such as multiplying binomials, completing the square and factoring, and connect them to the area models.

Here is the link to my Integrated Math 2 Desmos collections again.

Other sites that help to accommodate the curriculum for equitable access are ones like Quizlet.  Teaching in Southern California, I have a great deal of English Language Learners.  Math is a language, and so we need to be teachers of not only math, but also language.  In order for students to be able to make sense of the curriculum, they need to understand what we are trying to communicate with them.  All students, but particularly English language learners need to study, reference, and interact with vocabulary, that has definitions aligned to the curriculum, pictures, and can be read out loud to them.

Here is a link to my vocabulary sets for Integrated Math 1 and 2. I will be making updates to these throughout the year as I work to incorporate items from the Glossary, one of the new features of the Open Up High School Math curriculum.

Can it give students useable feedback in real time?

There are many ways that technology can make what we do as teachers, more efficient. That is definitely another instance when I will choose to incorporate technology into my classroom. Dealing with 100+ students each day as a secondary teacher means that I need a way to communicate feedback to students about their learning both consistently and frequently. That is why I love using sites like Edulastic and Khan Academy. Both of these sites provide students with the opportunity to get immediate feedback on how they are doing, as well as opportunities for correction and improvement. I assign practice skills from Khan Academy weekly to solidify skills, and use Edulastic for practice.

I work hard to foster a growth mindset in my classroom, I want all students to believe that they can learn, and that they can learn math, specifically. To that end, I try to give my students opportunities to focus on the learning and have the ability to reattempt questions until they have learned. With these two sites, students can get immediate feedback so that they can make corrections to their work and keep trying until they learn how to do it correctly. Practice doesn't make perfect, Perfect practice makes perfect. Skill practice is where students should be honing their learning and it is something that they should be attempting to do correctly, to ensure that they have in fact learned how to do it.

 

This focus on skill practice and mastery of basic and foundational skills is similar to that of the Ready and Gos in the Open Up High School Math Curriculum. That is why, one of the things that I will be keeping from distance learning is the use of Edulastic for students to input their answers for the Ready and Gos. I turn on the ability for students to check their answers, as well as the option for them to resubmit the entire assignment to check their overall score. This is a premium feature on Edulastic, but I use it so much, that this is one site I am willing to pay for out of pocket if my site will not pay for it for me. It is totally worth it! 

There is still a lot that can be done with the free version, it is one of the best sites out there for generating a wide variety of question styles there's: multiple choice, true/false, matching, classifying, ordering, fill in the blank, drop down, short answer, drawing, graphing on number lines, graphing on coordinate planes, label an image, and more. As a side note, another added plus of using Edulastic is that it utilizes the Desmos Scientific Calculator for a seamless integration, that way students are confident they are entering their calculations correctly. I could go on and on.

Edulastic, really does give me the ability to recreate anything from the Ready and Gos as a digital assignment. That is why this year I plan to give the students a paper copy of each Retrieval, Ready and Go and have them show all work on paper, but also I plan to have them input their answers into Edulastic and keep checking their work to make sure that they are practicing properly with the purpose of learning and solidifying skills.

Here is a link to a spreadsheet where I have a list of assignments I have already recreated on Edulastic for Integrated Math 1 and 2. I will be adding to this sheet throughout the year, so if you like it, you might want to bookmark it and keep checking back.

Can I use it to help collect formative data? 

It is worth stating again that: there are many ways that technology can make what we do as teachers, more efficient. Gathering and making sense of formative data is another one of those ways. All of the sites already listed in this article, are ways that we can use technology to collect formative data: Desmos, Geogebra, Nearpod, Peardeck, Kahoot, Quizizz, Blooket, Quizlet, Khan Academy, and Edulastic.

One that I cannot talk about enough though is Edulastic. I use Edulastic to guide my classroom instruction. It is one of the best sites out there for helping teachers to quickly and easily see things like: student averages and class averages, which questions students as a whole struggle or excel on, which questions individual students struggle or excel on, which answers are most frequent, how long students spend on a question, how many attempts a student made, if their scores improved through various attempts, etc. 

It helps me to quickly see how students are doing with the material, where I need to reteach, or what things I need to make sure to put a greater emphasis on going forward. The best part about Edulastic is that you can take just about any question you can think of, and format it with the available widgets.

For years I used the free version of Edulastic. It wasn't until we went on distance learning that I actually purchased the premium version. There is so much that can be done with Edulastic, even if all you have is the free version, it still includes a lot of good feedback.

 

In closing, remember that these considerations very often times overlap and one site will provide one or all of these benefits.  All of this may seem like a lot, but it's really not, as long as it's spread throughout the course.  This variety of sites can really help to break up the monotony and keep students engaged and learning.  Remember to choose technology carefully and only incorporate it, if it has a purpose. 

Too much tech and students get bored with it.  Too little tech and you are not maximizing the benefits that are available with edtech.  We need just the right amount of tech.