EDTC: Blog Post #3

ISTE Standard 3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

The following standards are most relevant to my triggering question

1. Demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. 

2. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation. 

3. Model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning.

Teaching students is not easy. All the factors that contribute to students’ mathematical abilities whether it is parental support, emotional needs and cognitive level creates a unique dynamic in my classroom each year. With the use of research-based strategies on technology it can become easier to assist students academically by evaluating them in order to provide individualized support. With the use of different digital formats a major goal of mine is to analyze my students’ ability in math, then create personalized education in order for them to succeed in my math course. The question I asked myself to help answer my dilemma was, “What are the different digital formats and their benefits?” With this question my hope is to construct individualized education for all my math students.

While researching I found an article on the use of a digital format that applied to the Chilean school system.  “Increasing Student Engagement in Math: The Use of Khan Academy in Chilean Classrooms” follows researchers looking for the effectiveness of Khanacademy.org in the classroom in comparison to their traditional math classroom. The digital format has been useful for showing videos, creating an endless amount of practice, and generating data for teachers to monitor student understanding (Light, D., & Pierson, E., 2014). Those main reasons helped the Chilean teachers create a digital environment that can be overseen while students are able to explore new concepts or review ones they may have struggled with.  

This type of digital format would apply to the students I teach because they have a wide variety of ability levels, just like the students featured in the article. Khanacademy.org would allow me to create a space for each student to grow at their own rate. Louise Starkey in her article, “Evaluating learning in the 21st century: a digital age learning matrix” found major benefits for creating those student-centered lessons. “The students observed spent more time learning through student-centred studies and cooperative learning activities, which may have benefits in other areas not measured directly in the standardised test” (Starkey, L., 2011). Since the students who I work with have the use of iPads everyday at school and at home, having this resource would be beneficial to analyze their achievement in my class and provide one-on-one education using that tool.

Another resource I found that will help promote student achievement is Remind.com. The digital format was originally designed as a text messaging service where teachers could send announcements to parents and students. Now with the use of the iPads, it can be used as a two-way communication tool where the recipients can communicate back and forth with the teacher. While another SPU student, Katie Adams, was looking for research for her question, the article, “The Changing Nature of Parent-Teacher Communication” discusses the effectiveness with having parents as well as students use the text messaging service to provide immediate feedback. As text messaging emerges as a way to communicate, a majority of parents studied found it to be a viable and convenient option to communicate to their child’s teacher (Thompson, B. C., Mazer, J. P., & Grady, E. F., 2015). Being able to have parent support like that would provide an immensely positive impact on their child’s learning in mathematics.

What I found useful from Remind.com’s features is the potential to assist students by having the teacher become an online tutor. I have been experimenting with allowing students to ask me questions through the app. So far it has been beneficial with students and parents asking questions about their homework assignments by sending me pictures and I analyze them and provide feedback. A goal is to extend its current use into creating an online student-centered instruction where I can provide digital materials outside of the classroom. In this way I can have students explore topics or review materials in the comfort of their home. Then they can ask me questions using the app or bring it to me the following day. Remind.com is beginning to be extremely useful to my needs as a teacher by creating an online presence to help students and hopefully to create student-centered instruction.

As I utilize these digital formats to support my students I will want to make sure I am working to provide a strong digital presence so my students can have an individualized education. There are a few minor problems for what I want to accomplish. First as with anything that is new, time is needed to create and implement. Trying to effectively create an individualized education takes quite a while to organize the intended goal, and the steps to achieve it. Another would be the issue of access to the internet. A portion of my students have limited access to food and housing, let alone access to the internet. The only way they can access digital materials is in the school. Creating an online individualized education would be difficult for those students. I would have to change my plan for them so they can utilize the digital formats also. With technology resources increasing, students are given an opportunity to expand their knowledge more easily than previous generations. As a teacher I must be able to meet their needs by creating student-centered lessons and activities using different digital formats.

Works Cited

Light, D., & Pierson, E. (2014). The Use of Khan Academy in Chilean Classrooms: Study of an      Intel Funded Pilot Program in Chile. 2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, 103-120. doi:10.1109/icalt.2014.65

Starkey, L. (2011). Evaluating learning in the 21st century: A digital age learning matrix. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 20(1), 19-39. doi:10.1080/1475939x.2011.554021

Thompson, B. C., Mazer, J. P., & Grady, E. F. (2015). The Changing Nature of Parent–Teacher 
           Communication: Mode Selection in the Smartphone Era. Communication Education, 64(2), 
           187-207. doi:10.1080/03634523.2015.1014382