As a student in elementary or secondary student, what role did technology play in your educational experiences in the math classroom? If I reflect on my own experiences as an elementary and secondary students, the vast majority of my math classes consisted of pencils, papers, and textbooks. Besides the occasional use of an overhead projector to display a word problem or an image on the board, the use of technology was minimal. This week, therefore, was an exciting and eye-opening week for me as I was able to explore how to integrate technology in engaging, meaningful, and powerful ways through blended learning in order to enhance teaching and learning in the math classroom.
What Is Blended Learning?
Blended learning combines traditional face-to-face classroom instruction with online learning. Before this class, I thought that blended learning simply involved using technology in the classroom. As the graphic below shows, however, blended learning seeks to mix digital and face-to-face learning to create a dynamic learning experience where students have the opportunity to take more responsibility for the time, pace, and place of their learning.
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| © Adams 12 Five Star Schools |
How Can We Implement Blended Learning in the Classroom?
The idea of creating a dynamic learning experience that fuses face-to-face instruction and digital learning was somewhat intimidating at first. Some of the initial questions that ran through my head were: Where do I begin? How do I know whether the technology that I am integrating is creating a rich and dynamic learning experience for my students? During our in-class exploration of blended learning, I found the SAMR model to be a valuable resource in helping me to overcome my initial trepidation and to understand what blended learning looks like in a classroom.
Imagine Easy Solutions. 2014, May 29. "The SAMR Model Explained"
Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2xbLomw.
Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2xbLomw.
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| © Dr. Ruben Puentedura. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/JaoAcN. |
As the video above the image on the right illustrate, tech integration happens on a continuum or a scale. I can use technology to enhance my students' learning experiences by replacing traditional tools with technology as in the case of substitution or augmentation. I can also use technology to transform students' learning experiences in rich and meaningful ways by reconstructing tasks or creating new tasks that would not previously be possible without the use of technology. While my ultimate goal is to transform students' learning experiences through modification and redefinition, I think it is important to recognize that, in reality, all four parts of the SAMR model can be present when I am integrating technology in my classroom. Some lesson plans may simply involve using technology to increase the functionality of the task such as doing an online quiz with the app Kahoot! which provides students with instant feedback for self-assessment. Other lesson plans may involve tasks that would not be possible without the use of technology such as creating a video tutorial that contains videos, audio, diagrams, and photographs.
If I reflect on my math lesson plans from placement last year, the majority of the technology that I integrated into my lessons served the purpose of substitution or augmentation. In my future classrooms, my goal is to make a more conscious effort to find ways to integrate technology to modify and redesign tasks for the twenty-first century learners in my classroom. The Padagogy Wheel is a fantastic resource for developing ideas about how to integrate technology to create rich, meaningful, and engaging tasks for students.
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Why Integrate Technology into the Classroom?
Improving Students' Mathitudes
In Making Math Children Will Love, Dr. Lynda Colgan emphasizes the importance incorporating non-traditional and attention-grabbing resources into the math classroom in order to "spark curiosity about mathematics, improve appreciation for and interest in mathematics, and contribute to understanding and relevance of mathematics in everyday life" (p. 1). Integrating interactive digital tools into the math classroom is a great way to create positive and engaging learning opportunities where students are excited to play, explore, and learn more about math. For example, during our webinar, we talked about the importance of integrating financial literacy into our lesson plans. Digital resources such as budgeting tools, games that involve financial decision-making, and videos about setting SMART goals can help our students to develop the knowledge and skills to become informed and engaged citizens in the global economy in a way that is personal, fun, and engaging. In our unit plan, we have also made an effort to include interactive digital activities and games such as the Tangram Game and the Cube Nets activity from Illuminations to spark students' curiosity about geometry.
Enhancing Student Learning
As Dr. Catherine Bruce discusses in Technology in the Mathematics Classroom, interactive whiteboards have tremendous potential to enhance student learning when they are used as a dynamic thinking tool. Interactive whiteboards promote collaboration and conversation as they allow students and teachers to show and interact with websites, diagrams, images, videos, and records of students' work. Our Math Mindset module this week discussed the value of representing mathematical concepts with drawings and manipulatives in order to develop a deeper and more meaningful understanding of mathematical concepts. Interactive whiteboards provide this visual support by making allowing students to use visuals to explore mathematical ideas and to illustrate and explain their thinking. As a teacher, I would definitely integrate the use of a SMART Board or an app like Explain Everything in my classroom as a means of encouraging students to take risks, illustrate ideas, and justify their reasoning as they collaborate with their peers.
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