Before this project, my experience with photomath was mostly negative. Upon reflection and throughout the making of this project, I realized that this is what 1970’s teachers must of felt like when calculators became common place. They had to adjust methods of teaching and assessment to account for the updating technology.
Through this project, I realised the strengths of Photomath as an open and mobile resource. I discuss this in my pros and cons page. I also discuss methods of classroom application to increase positive usage of the mobile app.
Please access the website here .
After reading Katherine’s description of photomath and the cons of cheating on tests, I came to a similar response as MisterMC. I do not feel that in the different industries you are required to remember the precise equations or algorithms. Rather, how to execute them. You will also likely be able to compare a few ways to solve them before finalizing your answer, unlike in a testing circumstance. I may be speaking from a primary grade perspective, but testing is only one of the ways we assess students. Teachers should know their students well enough that “cheating” on a test is easily detectable due to their constant performance in class and through “interviewing” students after a test. This debate over the cheating aspect of a test and app brings us to a bigger question: how authentic is a test based assessment? Especially with the anxiety and inauthentic reality of not being able to ask for help. This app actually brings forth a bigger question on education.
I am still on the fence over the “cheating” aspect of applications like this. For the most part, I think that tools like this can be just as readily available in industry so why don’t we allow students to use them? If there was a cheating spectrum this would be over to the right but then again notes, calculators and even our own minds would be on that spectrum. I don’t think the solution is policing, especially as these tools become more powerful and readily available. Limiting access can be a tool for higher stakes assessments. If there is an epidemic of cheating then I think the solution is to provide richer problems and real life tasks that develop an understanding of the different concepts and then assessments can mirror these activities. This would provide a deeper understanding of concepts beyond the ability to manually perform a set of algorithms. There is a place for practice, however, and I see that, if these practice questions that Photomath is good at, are being assessed, then cheating would be an issue. I would simply not score those practice questions but use them as formative assessments and enrichment activities. I know that I’ve used Photomath in some situations that were way over my head and it led to an AHA! moment that I wouldn’t have otherwise encountered and it helped me understand both the concept and the algorithm.
Hi Katherine, Super interesting app and great presentation. I appreciated your classroom application section in particular. Do you think the app goes far enough when it comes to preventing cheating?