Friday, March 26, 2021

How Much Technology is too Much?

 

    Technology surrounds us every day. The smartwatch on our wrists, the phone in our hands, the laptop we complete homework on, the washing machine and dryer used to do laundry, and even the coffee machine used every morning to give us caffeine boosts are all considered technology. According to, “How many devices will you use in your life,” by WebFix, the average American lives to be 79 years old and will have 43.9 phones, 15.8-26.3 laptops, 7.7-17.2 TVs, and 13.2 coffee makers. As you can tell technology is taking the world by storm.

    Relating this to my Technology for STEM class, it makes me wonder is there too much technology in the classroom? Or maybe a better question is, is there such a thing as too much technology in the classroom? In my opinion, there are benefits and downfalls to technology in the classroom, but is there  a fine line of too much technology?

    Starting positively, there are billions of resourses available for students at the click of a button. These resources allow students to view videos to understand topics, read articles about different concepts or other technologies to better their understanding, use online calculators to check their answers, and easily communicate with their professors. On the other hand, students are spending too much time staring at a computer screen. Personally, I spend about six or seven hours a day on my laptop completing homework. This does not include my other activities on the computer such as watching Netflix or reading a book. The recommended amount of screen time is two hours total (shout out to Shelby’s blog post). Students are spending three to four times the recommended amount of screen time. This has negative effects on students physically and mentally.

    Similar to students, teachers have access to thousands of resources. These resources can help teachers create lesson plans, worksheets, exams, and share their creations with other teachers. This semester alone we have learned about video-making software, online homework systems, learning management systems, and even apps that can solve equations. However, all the different resources can be problematic when deciding which website is better than a different one or is a certain learning management system better than another. Credibility of student also becomes problematic. How can a teacher decide if a student completed their homework or cheated off of Chegg or even one another?

    Overall, I believe technology is more good than bad right now. However, I believe there is still a point where there is such a thing as too much technology in the classroom, we simply have not reached that point yet. 



 https://www.webfx.com/blog/general/how-many-devices-will-you-use-in-your-life/




Friday, March 19, 2021

Homework in the Math Classroom

As I was thinking about what to blog this week, my mind kept coming back to a topic we talk about a lot in our pedagogy classes: homework in the math classroom. In middle and high school, the majority of my homework assignments were simply 2-40 even or something similar to that. Although they weren’t extremely long, it still felt like I was just doing extra problems for no reason. Eventually, there was more of a variety, but I still didn’t really know why I had to do that much homework since it was just a completion grade anyway. I tutor a student in Algebra I, and the review assignment for their first test was literally 80 questions long! Yes, it was review and they had a few days to complete it, but that is outrageous! The assignments have gotten shorter as the year has gone by, but he still has 30-40 problem assignments to do for every class period.

Now why am I talking about homework in a blogpost that should be dedicated to technology? Well, this week we learned about different online homework programs that have become popular, especially since last year when all schooling went online. We looked at DeltaMath and Edulastic, both of which have free versions along with paid versions. They had hundreds of subjects and standards to choose from and you can assign a specific number of questions from whichever standard/subject you want. I really liked the instant data on the teacher side of Edulastic because you could see all kinds of information such as which questions were being missed more frequently and how much time is being spent on the questions. I feel like this is a program that could enhance my job as a teacher because I can instantly see what concepts need more explanation in real time and where the class is at with the material. This insight would allow me to tweak the lessons and set my students up for success.

In my college courses, I have used Webassign for the majority of my math homework, which I actually really like. The questions are very similar to the textbook questions, and you can normally practice similar problems or watch how to do a problem if you need some help. The assignments also are normally 10-15 questions, so they aren’t too long. I could see myself using an online homework system like Webassign for classroom. There are some definite cons to online homework though. We all make silly little mistakes when working a math problem, and sometimes you can get partial credit for questions when you turn in handwritten homework. But with online homework, it’s normally all or nothing, which can be really annoying.

Regardless of whether you have handwritten or online homework, I think that we need to normalize having fewer problems on math homework and emphasize that homework is meant to help you understand concepts better, rather than just act as busy work with no reward. I think that using something such as Edulastic or DeltaMath at least part of the time in the classroom would benefit the students as well as the teacher. I don’t think I would use a program like this for all of my homework assignments because I would rather use questions that align with the textbook, but I think it would be a nice review resource or a tool to check understanding. The important thing no matter what is explaining the purpose of homework and making sure your students know why they are doing homework.

 

Friday, March 5, 2021

Study Tools with Growing Technology

            As a third-year math education major at South Dakota State, math exams have been on my plate since I started my post high school education. As this week ends, I just finished two exams over the course of the week, so as you could imagine I did my fair share of studying this week. I have never been great at studying nor have I ever enjoyed it. I thought to myself, “how can I make this experience easier for my students?” As time passes and technology gets more innovative, the cluster and sheer number of options for our students to utilize while studying can become overwhelming. Being a student in a time of such rapid growth in technology has shown me firsthand how exhausting it can be to siphon through it all.
            Studying is one of the aspects that the teacher doesn’t have nearly as much control over. It is the responsibility of the student to put in the appropriate amount of time and effort into studying, so that they can get the outcome they want to achieve. While this is true, I believe that technology has provided teachers an easier way to help students with their studying. Because most schools have an online program that they use to assign homework and such, it is the perfect location to provide students with ample material to use to study. This can be more than just practice exams and study guides. While those are great tools provided to students, there is so much more technology has to offer. One great tool I’ve used these past three years is YouTube. YouTube as hundreds of channels that can provide short lessons on a topic. A couple channels I’ve found incredibly useful are patrickJMT and 3Blue1Brown. Now while I do say that YouTube is a great tool, it is important to remember how troublesome or dangerous it can be. As a future teacher, I want to provide students with great channels that can serve as a helpful tool or second voice in the learning process. I believe it is the responsibility of the teacher to provide their students with channels they have watched and trust.
             One last tool I’ve found is an incredible tool that was just recently come into use of education is Zoom and other tools like it. Zoom may be the only good thing to come out of the COVID-19 period of time. Not only does Zoom provide a way for students to attend class while they are sick or need to be home for whatever reason, it also allows the student and teacher to connect better. I believe the teacher is the most useful study tool that a student can use when studying for an exam. Before Zoom, once a student went home, the only way get in contact with their teacher was for them to email them and hope for a response. Zoom is a great way for students to ask their teachers a question about their studying while also getting a verbal response when they aren’t at school.
            Overall, as technology continues to rapidly grow, so will the ways students can study. It is the responsibility of the teacher to select the best options that will allow their students to succeed.