Effective Use of Technology In the Classroom?

postermmxvicom writes "I remember in college I had one professor who, in addition to being a great teacher, really took advantage of the technology in the classroom to illustrate the concepts for Calculus and Linear Algebra. Well, now I am the teacher. I teach Algebra, AP Calculus, and Physics in high school. This year I have gotten a tablet and a wireless projector. Now I can write on my tablet instead of the board, as well as use other applications. I want to utilize this tech effectively for teaching. Would you please share how you have seen technology effectively used for Math and Physics — either specific software or how that software was used (specific or general)?"

HIGH SCHOOL?

[scribblej]

If my experience in High School still applies (and maybe it doesn't; it was a long time ago) you're going to turn out the lights to use that fancy gizno and half the class is going straight to sleep, the other half is going to be passing notes and shooting spitwads and paper airplanes around.

I suggest you compliment the technology there with a pair of night-vision goggles or something.

cart before the horse

[Anonymous Coward]

I think a major mistake teachers make is to discover new teaching technology and then invent a curriculum that uses them. This gets the process entirely backwards. If you try this, you're going to sacrifice learning in the interest of playing with your new toys.

You've got these new tools. That's great. Now forget about them. Design your lessons as you would. As you go, you're going to realize ... "this would work better if I can use my new gizmo." This is where the technology comes in. First find the problem, then find the solution.

Sounds like a good starting point.

[khasim]

So, what is the problem with a blackboard? Be precise.

Then, look at whether the technology will solve that/those problem(s). We're talking math here. Is the technology going to allow you to better explain some difficult concepts or will the focus end up being on the technology?

Blackboards work because blackboards always work. They don't need to be rebooted.

Labor Saving is Only Advantage.

[twitter]

You already know how and what to teach. The only change will be that you can reuse your notes directly and can drag in new content from Wikipedia and other nice places. Instead of having to write everything every time, you can just point to what you are talking about.

The drawbacks are that students can glaze over if they are not busy taking notes, and that you might run too fast for them because you are not pacing yourself by writing.

What you use to present does not matter. The easiest way is to take pictures of your notes and project those. Typesetting is time consuming and error prone and that's where images help most. Just hold the camera high enough over the page for good focus and zoom in to crop what you don't want. Images can be stuck into a "Power Point" slide show, but you are better off using Open Office and exporting the result to html with frames.

Overall, you are replacing a blackboard with a slide show and augmenting the notes your students would take. The real learning comes from assignments, but you already know that.

Re:powerpoint

[FieroEtnl]

PowerPoint is very useful if the person using that tool uses it correctly. Unfortunately, most people use it incorrectly and write down every single thing that they're planning on saying on a slide. If you're going to do that, students will catch on and just think that they can get by with printing off the notes and skipping class because listening to the teacher will not help them understand the material any better. The catch is, they won't understand it at all. Active learning helps people learn and remember facts and concepts way better than passive reading or listening. That's why the best way to use PowerPoint is as a guide or outline to what you're going to talk about. It forces people to use more than one sense to take everything in, and if they want notes on everything important from the lecture, they have to write it down themselves and actually comprehend it in the first place.

Wrong question

[Black Parrot]

If you don't know how you're going to use it to meet your classroom goals, maybe you should be asking yourself why you intend to use it at all.

"Because it's there" doesn't seem like a good reason for introducing technology into the classroom.

Two suggestions

[belmolis]

I have two suggestions. (a) if there are things that you find tedious (e.g. marking) or difficult (e.g. sketches, if you aren't a good artist), look for technological solutions to those so that you can devote your time and energy to more important things and won't get tired and frustrated; (b) don't focus on your new toys. Instead, think about what ideas and skills you have a hard time getting across and ask yourself how you could improve in those areas. Sometimes the answer will be something your toys are good for, maybe a simulation for an experiment you can't readily do, but sometimes it won't be technological. It might just be a better derivation of a theorem or formula or a clever diagram. If you focus too much on your toys, you run the risk of doing things that you, and maybe your students, find cool, but that aren't really of much educational value.

Re:powerpoint

[belmolis]

Before even thinking about making a powerpoint presentation, (re)read Edward Tufte's wonderful essay Powerpoint is Evil [wired.com].

Re:Ways to use the technology

[bishop32x]

It may be different for you, but seeing something up on the board doesn't help me learn. Graphics are great for illustrating a point, but in terms of equations and diagrams, I need to write it to remember it. Getting copies of the instructors notes just gives students a lazy way out, not a chance to participate more.

Wrong question

[AuMatar]

Asking "how can I use technology" is always the wrong question. Your goal is not to use technology, its to teach. The correct question is "How can I increase the amount my students learn?" or perhaps "How can I increase the number of students who learn?". When you look at solutions to this technology *may* be part of it, but it probably won't be.

For physics, the thing I always found best was lots of real world examples. Don't explain mechanical advantage- set up a pulley system and let them lift a car. Don't explain pressure- show it to them by lying on a bed of nails without being cut. The more fantastic the example, the better. About the only thing that I ever really found technology useful for in physics was to show the effect of changing parameters in equations, and you can find plenty of java applets on the web that do that.

Blackboard is best

[blitz487]

Use of blackboards/whiteboards works very well. The prof writes the equations down as he explains them, and the students handwrite them into their notes. The prof writing them down keeps the focus on the relevant part, and the student handwriting a copy helps fix it in their brains.

It ain't broke, and doesn't need fixing.

None

[Secret Rabbit]

I find it stunning (and disturbing) that there is this notion that adding tech to the classroom is by default beneficial. This idea is complete rubbish and the studies are starting to mount that show this (see below). Especially when it comes to the hard sciences and mathematics. We know that 'dead poets society' ruined a generation of english teachers. IMO, technology is ruining a generation (or more) of science/math teachers.

I've seen exactly ZERO tech used in class beyond an overhead that was anywhere near effective whether high-school or beyond. Hell, even when I taught *C++* I used the white-board a significant chunk of the time. Also, in high-school, that cover of darkness can prove to be a bad choice.

Powerpoint (and similar products) are so poorly used (I've actually /never/ seen it used properly) that they actually seriously detract from the class. In fact, people tend to do the exactly same nonsense with powerpoint that they do with the chalkboard i.e. write what they say. Yes, I can read, tell me/write on the board something I can't.

There have also been studies on using tech with kids (look through /. archives for the links). The conclusions were that all this tech actually largely prevents learning because the kids are distracted by all the "shiny objects" rather than actually paying attention to the content.

So, my suggestion is to put away all of you expensive toys (that are proving to be less and less effective as time goes on), pick up a piece of chalk and actually teach them. After all, when it comes to Math and Science, all you need is quick sketches to get the ideas across, now don't you.

Re:Sounds like a good starting point.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's all pointless. Study pedagogy (or at least sit through a few boring meetings) before giving advice. Slide shows are just about the best way to get students to not engage the material.

Technology has a very limited role in high school physics and mathematics pedagogy. As it happens, a quick blackboard pace is just slow enough to let students critically evaluate the material (with respect to note taking importance), formulate questions, and try to anticipate answers. Go any faster, and all you get is a class full of people fervently copying the slideshow verbatim.

Diagrams/animations can be an exception. If a diagram can be convincingly explained once drawn, and it is complex enough to make using Photoshop or whatever worth the effort, by all means, use a predrawn diagram. Most "interesting" diagrams fail the first condition. Animations, of course, make the first condition moot. But they are rarely worth the effort.

The problem with powerpoint...

[Moraelin]

The problem with powerpoint slides is that someone recently figured out we're not made to read text off a slide and hear someone talk at the same time. We only have enough brain power for one, not for both. If you even try to -- and people instinctively will -- you'll go fuzzy brained and remember neither. So in effect showing powerpoint slides badly, can be in fact worse than not writing anything anywhere.

Now they figured that out for management presentations, and why you come empty-headed from of a presentation you were actually interested in. But I can't come up with any argument as to why it would work better in schools. In fact, it might be outright scary. Using powerpoint instead of a blackboard may well be _the_ most destructive thing one can do.

There are ways to use powerpoint well, like you'd use an overhead projector. E.g., to show charts, relevant illustrations, etc. E.g., in a biology class you could show a picture of a cell's structure as a slide instead of as an overhead projector foil. And leave people time to digest it, instead of forcing them to also take notes at the same time.

But a substitute for a blackboard it ain't. On a blackboard:

A) you're led to follow the current focus of attention, whatever word is currently being written. You don't just get a big word soup to get lost in and out of sync, you get to follow the cursor (hand with chalk) so to speak, at the same time you're hearing it. It works to reinforce what you hear, not to try to split your attention between two different texts.

B) the teacher is only human too, and he too would have trouble if he tried speaking one thing while writing something completely different. So there's a self-reinforcing mechanism to hold prevent it from becoming an attention-splitting device. As a subcase, if he takes some time to explain why he did something to a formula, he won't already start writing the next one.

C) it enforces _some_ structure, because a blackboard is all the space you can get at a time. Which also cuts back on distractions like flipping back and forth between charts. Which is a distraction. Everytime you go "hmm, this one we don't need.. next... nope, this one we'll learn next week... let's see the next one... nah, we don't need that... next... aha, here we are..." that's not just wasted time. That's a bunch of people who've either tried to read it fast and the next minutes will be busy figuring that out instead of what you say next, or (probably most) whose attention and focus went right out the window while you did that little powerpoint dance.

D) well, I hate to be mean to teachers (God knows they have a shitty job already), but it forces them to prepare that material instead of just borrowing someone's slides. And if they didn't know it too well, they'll at least recap it while they write it on the blackboard.

If you will, what I'm saying at points C an D is that I see it as the same as in IT: the better tools and languages we had, the more unqualified monkeys got hired to use them. I'm all for better tools and compilers, don't get me wrong. But in a lot of places the trend wasn't to do more with them, but to lower the baseline for the people hired to use them. And they'll feel the less of a need to learn what they're doing there. After all, the tool will do the thinking for them, right?

The same might just happen in schools. I can see some people (e.g., substitute teachers) going into a class with someone else's powerpoint presentation, but barely knowing what it's about.

Except in IT you have at least some reality check whether it worked or not. If it doesn't compile or doesn't run the test cases, you know you've screwed up. In teaching we might not even know it before we pump out a few generations of complete airheads, for no fault of their own. And for a change I don't mean just the dumb jocks and prom queens, because the powerpoint fuzzy-brain effect applies to nerds interested in that topic too.

Re:In-class polling

[tftp]

What makes the teacher think that one minute after he stopped talking everyone has captured and memorized everything? I was never subjected to such quick polls, and if I were I'd say "what do you want from me, I haven't had a chance to review my notes and to reflect upon what I just heard."

Understanding of a lecture is not equal to memorizing it, and even the understanding is not guaranteed to occur instantly; some things you just circle and write on the margins "Where did this come from? Check with the book." instead of interrupting the lecture for everyone else. The teacher won't disappear in any case, so you can always ask separately, but in my experience it is plain impossible that nobody else in your class knows the answer to whatever confuses me.

Use as little technology as you can

[Ichoran]

The key to using technology effectively is to not think about the technology. Think about how to convey information to students. How long does it really take for a concept to sink in? Actually doing math or physics is a skill; it takes practice (i.e. homework), and it is a process not an answer. If you can use technology to show the process in action at a speed at which students can absorb it, you are using technology well.

Never use technology to avoid taking time to write something. Guess what? If you don't write it, they don't have time to either. And if you provide notes, then they won't even take the time to listen--why bother, your students will think, when I can just read the notes?

What you want to do is take them through the process, slowly, with examples, showing how to do the manipulations and explaining why at each stage a decision is made. (If you have to deal with moderate numbers of students who no longer remember how to do algebra--and you almost certainly will--you may need to elect to leave them behind; if you have huge numbers of such students, you'd better go through how to do algebra again!)

Here's one way that I've used a tablet to be helpful. You can start with a well-designed picture or graph, then draw all over it while you're explaining a concept. You can show a short movie of an interesting phenomenon, then dissect the process, e.g. by taking out frames and scribbling equations on them.

One big mistake that people make is thinking either that computers are useless and shouldn't be used for homework, or in thinking that the fundamentals are useless and you should just teach people to do derivatives with Mathematica. It's a waste of time for almost everyone to do math by hand these days if they have access to a symbolic package. But they had better understand _exactly_ how the operations work and under what conditions they fail, or they're liable to have the symbolic package perform nonsense.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem with teaching is that students don't come in with the right background. And a tablet can't fix that.

    --Rex

Re:Sounds like a good starting point.

[gomiam]

That's all pointless. Study pedagogy (or at least sit through a few boring meetings) before giving advice. Slide shows are just about the best way to get students to not engage the material.

Methinks you are being subjected to badly designed slideshows then. And yes, I have seen good and bad presentations. A good presentation will let you quickly grasp the concepts in each slide and listen to the explanation.

Technology has a very limited role in high school physics and mathematics pedagogy. As it happens, a quick blackboard pace is just slow enough to let students critically evaluate the material (with respect to note taking importance), formulate questions, and try to anticipate answers. Go any faster, and all you get is a class full of people fervently copying the slideshow verbatim.

Because you would never provide copies of the slideshow to your students with space for taking notes. Actually, I didn't even need that when I was a student: I got the slides, numbered each and wrote my comments on paper with slide references. A quick blackboard pace may mean having something like this: one person to copy what is written on the blackboard, another to copy what is being said, and a third person for Q&A (yes, the teacher wrote and spoke so fast that they had to cooperate to get the whole class written).

All this being said, I agree that hands-on material benefits from a slower pace. Not because the students will ask questions (they are too reluctant too look "stupid") but because you can ask questions to the students about how to proceed from the current point.

If a diagram can be convincingly explained once drawn, and it is complex enough to make using Photoshop or whatever worth the effort, by all means, use a predrawn diagram.

If you need a diagram (I wouldn't use Photoshop for that kind of work, but that's another debate altogether), you will benefit from not having to draw it once and again, if only because you are less likely to omit something.

Chalk

[Upaut]

My best professor, and by "best" I mean I actually learned the most from him then from a textbook, and keep the knowledge today, did not even use a whiteboard. He used white (or yellow) chalk on a blackboard. It was how he did it that mattered.

* Come into class, place yesterdays work in front of him, sit down, copy the blackboard into your notebook. You have five minutes so write fast.

*Professor flips the board. Five minutes starting now.

*Spend the rest of the class discussing and explaining the facts in great depth. Professor points at someone every other minute and asks a question on the material. Asks hard questions. If you can't keep up in notes, you had better ask someone to copy, because he will not slow down. If you can't keep up in the critical thinking portion, get the hell out and accept a fail.

* Professor handed out copies of that nights questions, due at the beginning of the next class.


I was blessed to have that man's class twice in my life. Once in high school, the other in my junior year of college. I tell you, it was that man's pep that kept us awake and going, and his zest for the subject. It was highly infectious.

And as for a textbook in that class? He thought that the point of the class was half facts, half how to think with the facts... He was the textbook. At the start of the first class, when he explained how each class was going to be until the end, he gave all of us a list of books on the subject we could read. Each one was a fantastic read, not a dull one among them.

Re:Ways to use the technology

[gomiam]

but in terms of equations and diagrams, I need to write it to remember it.

In terms of equations you are not supposed to remember it (mostly). You are supposed to understand it.

Good old fashioned technology

[DavidApi]

Chalk and board. Plus some props to demonstrate stuff. Seriously, computers don't _really_ help students really understand stuff.

Physics? Nothing beats a good 'ol number of balls, rods, ramps, tubes etc etc in demonstrating how stuff works. Watching virtual cars colliding on the screen doesn't really make students appreciate the nature of momentum and conservation of energy.
Chemistry? How does using some 3D software showing off molecules really compare to a good 'ol titration in the lab?
Biology? Disecting a rat just beats reading about rat morphology any day.
Mathematics? Take the students down to the beach and measure waves. Their height, period, variation in shape, speed etc.

Computers and other technology is useful for analysing and summarising the data, but get the students out of the classroom to gather the data.

Re:teach WHY people should study Algebra

[tubegeek]

Don't shoot dogs. Dogs are great.

Re:Ways to use the technology

[confused one]

You're like most people. It's how the brain works. We have to write it down or spend time "hands on" in order to learn. That's what the homework assignments and labs are for. There is a method to my madness...

One thing that really frustrates me is when I am pressed to copy something. I've run into plenty of teachers who can write on a blackboard faster than I can on paper.

If you're expending 100% of your efforts trying to copy the stuff down, you're not learning, you're transcribing. The key is to hand out the lecture notes then really make the class interactive. Ask questions. Make the students solve problems together. Then balance that with homework assignments that let students practice the skills and tests their knowledge. It doesn't hurt to make them think a little too.

soapbox_mode
A good teacher will use the homework as feedback indicating how effective their teaching methods are and how well the students are learning the material.
/soapbox_mode

For what it's worth... I graduated high school decades ago. I am not a teacher. I have a degree in applied physicist.

Hey, math teachers! This is for you.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not a math teacher, but I've been a math student, and here is my input to math teachers:
1) Don't make math a purely theoretical subject. Use as many examples of how the subject matter can be used for real-world applications as possible. Math for math's sake is just mental masturbation (IMHO!).
2) Don't try to impress students with how much you know. This attitude is especially common with college-level math professors, and it doesn't do anything for imparting your knowledge to your students.
3) If the examples of graphing, etc., that you use technology to demonstrate in class can't be duplicated by the student on their own computer, forget about using them.
4) Avoid PowerPoint shows like the plague--especially whiz-bang, show-biz effects that distract from the subject matter. Absolutely nothing will make your students do a mental shut-down faster.
5) Know your subject matter so well that you love teaching it. Your students will know in a minute if you don't, and it will be be a fantastic experience for them if you do.

Re:Sounds like a good starting point.

[geobeck]

I always found that a combination worked best.

• Notes should be prepared beforehand and given as handouts. Nothing is a more tedious time waster than having students copy text and formulae from the board/screen. Long notes should be organized in sections with numbered headings for easy reference.
• Worked examples are best written out as they are explained. A presentation that reveals each step as you explain it is almost as good, and can actually be better if the expressions are very complex. Highlight the changes in each step.
• Complex diagrams should be prepared beforehand. The presentation should be prepared in such a way that important parts can be highlighted.
• Simple diagrams should be drawn as they are presented.
• If you find that your presentations consist mainly of titles and bullet points, delete them and start over. The information in such slides is best handed out as notes. Save your presentations for visual material such as diagrams and worked examples.

I find that this method makes the students do enough of the work to keep them focused. Sufficient preparation leaves no time during which you are writing and they are sitting there, bored. Handing out long notes makes sure the slow writers aren't left behind.