For this exercise, I interviewed a colleague at Pickering College, an independent K-12 school with about 450 students. “Jackie” has been teaching Math for over 17 years and is currently teaching academic and enhanced Math in Grades 10-12. She is also the Math Department Head, so she has played a main role in the recent update of the school’s K-12 Math Program. The interview was conducted face-to-face on January 23, 2018 in one of the small meeting rooms and audio recorded using an iPad. My goal for the session was to determine any commonalities in the technologies that she thought were effective in her classroom, and explore the implications for future technologies.
Real-Time
Several of the technologies that Jackie highlighted in the interview emphasized the benefit of real-time “data” to improve instruction. For instance, Microsoft OneNote is currently being used not only as a virtual notebook, but also to understand student thinking and give “direct feedback” when necessary. Game based quizzing platforms like Kahoot not only makes learning engaging for students, but also enables Jackie to quickly “know who understands” concepts without singling out each student for an answer. Classroom activities in Desmos gives Jackie the ability to “see them (students) complete each screen in real-time” which helps her understand which students are struggling and need additional guidance.
Speed
Another common thread that Jackie emphasized throughout the interview was the ability of certain technologies to quickly engage student minds and eliminate misconceptions. For instance, an application like Geogebra helps teachers to show shapes and graphs “from almost any angle” thus improving the visualization of concepts. Similarly, Desmos makes the “teaching of ideas more smooth and less tedious” by simplifying the creation and manipulation of graphs which enables the user to focus on understanding the concepts. From a technical perspective, the consistency of the well established 1-to-1 laptop program enables teachers/students to get on task; it also gives teachers the confidence to try new applications.
Location
The last common thread from the interview was the use of technology platforms to extend learning beyond the traditional classroom. For instance, Jackie uses Microsoft OneNote to deliver units and entire online courses with the addition of Khan Academy, Edpuzzle, and other applications. From a curricular perspective, “the Math curriculum in Ontario for High School is very pre-calculus based and sometimes that takes up so much effort that we are losing interesting things that students would be able to engage with.” Within the newly developed Senior School Enhanced Math Program, the plan is to integrate STEM to increase the breadth of learning and go outside the expectations of the Ontario curriculum.
This interview continues to develop certain questions in my head about the future of educational technology. It is certain that computers have to the ability to be faster and more accurate at many tasks. In the past 5 years, my school has integrated a couple Math practice applications that boast intelligent real-time analysis, to guide students with precise differentiation and speed, in a fully online platform that can be accessed from any location with an Internet connection. Will these types of AI (artificial intelligence) driven systems fundamentally change learning and redefine the purpose of teachers?
Gordon,
First off, I had never heard of Desmos before and have already passed it along to the math teacher at our school. She thanks you both!
Real-time, speed, location. What great, universal topics to pull out of the interview. It seems like, with math especially, having results in real time can be crucial so that you know exactly who is understanding before the wrong ideas get cemented in place. I also use One Note in my Language Arts classroom and am a huge advocate for it. Sometimes, when kids get computers or tablets, it’s hard to watch their process. But, OneNote is so great for this as the teacher can be monitoring all the students at one time and helping students as they work. As a way to demonstrate this to my class, we were all able to draw a picture on our iPads simultaneously. I told them, if we are able to do this, imagine what we can do now when we try to solve a problem! They are all comfortable with it and it has really expanded the ways that they can collaborate.
As to your question, I think that the role of a teacher is every changing. We are always in a constant state of flux, as the world and what students need to know is also changing. Yet, I’m not one to be alarmed at this, as there will always be a place for mentors, guides, coaches, teachers, and more who are giving their lives to ensure that students are prepared for the future. I don’t want to make predictions that could be proven false, but I find it difficult to believe that something that cannot feel empathy could ever replace me as a teacher. AI could do many things for my students, and it is welcome to in my opinion. But, having someone who genuinely cares for them, is experienced, and is able to have innovative thoughts that keep up with the future is a job that is going to be difficult to replace.
-Jonathan-
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for your reply! I remember watching a TED Talks video of Dr. Fei Fei Li, Director at Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. She has spent years working on teaching computers to identify objects and emotions in pictures in order to categorize them. Teaching computers these tasks, which would be quite simple for humans, have been exceedingly difficult. Imagine trying to teach a computer empathy: the computer would have to actively listen to the nuanced words of a student, observe the body language and facial expressions, understand the background of the student, and put that all together to formulate a thoughtful and warm response; this would seem impossible by comparison. At the same time, I think that the future of computing will require brilliant minds ready to take on challenges that insurmountable. Would it be better for teachers to use technology that can automate the learning of core knowledge that does not require as much individualized guidance, to allow them to focus on engaging and develop students’ thinking skills?
Gordon
Li, L. J., & Fei-Fei, L. (2010). Optimol: automatic online picture collection via incremental model learning. International journal of computer vision, 88(2), 147-168.
TED. (2015, March 23). How we teach computers to understand pictures | Fei Fei Li. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40riCqvRoMs.
Hi Gordon
I like the fact that you discussed real-time data to help to learn. How does the teacher keep track/view (in Desmos) of all the students at the same time?
I wonder if this ‘real-time’ problem solving will help students with the new BC Numeracy Assessment (https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/provincial-assessment/graduation/numeracy) that is going to be implemented next year.
A good next step might be to look at real-life data to help solve math problems. For example, I have heard of teachers tracking freighter ships (not sure how) and coming up with math problems.
To keep the conversation going — make sure to respond to at least two other learners as well respond to all learners that respond to your own post. When responding to other learners, expand the discussion.
Christopher
With regards to Desmos, teachers have a dashboard that supposedly makes it easy for teachers to see all students at the same time (http://learn.desmos.com/teacher-dashboard/). I personally have not used it so I cannot attest to its effectiveness. As for the Numeracy Assessment, I have worked in the Math tutoring industry and the difference in ability and aptitude is staggering, especially when you get to Middle School and beyond. In theory, a real-time algorithm applied to the assessment could help to determine how exceptional some students are at one end of the spectrum, and even what problem solving skills are lacking in others.
Hi Gordon,
I learnt so much from your post. I never considered using OneNote in that manner, my default is usually Google Docs for collaborating, although I prefer OneNote for personal use. With regards to the other software programmes you mentioned, most of them I’m hearing about for the first time so you have given me some home-work to do.
In response to your question, I do believe that as technology becomes more advanced (including the use of AI) and as it becomes more commonplace in the classroom, the role of the teacher will change. I agree with Jonathan that AI or technology in general will not replace teachers. This is a concern fellow teachers have raised with me in the past and my answer has always been that we provide go far deeper than transference of knowledge; the human connection that teachers provide is not found in any other profession and it will always be required. We do however need to be aware and prepared for the way our roles will change.
Hi Kamille,
Thanks for both of your replies! Feel free to message me if you have any questions about the applications I mentioned. I think the main challenge for teachers is that they are unsure of the pathway for change. At times, school leadership forces technology changes without alignment to the core values for teaching and learning. For instance, if a school talks a “big game” about individualized learning and then introduces LMS technology that does not help individualize learning, then teachers become confused or disillusioned. I wonder, do you ever see this happening in your school?
Hi Gordon,
I learnt so much from your post. I never considered using OneNote in that manner, my default is usually Google Docs for collaborating, although I prefer OneNote for personal use. With regards to the other software programmes you mentioned, most of them I’m hearing about for the first time so you have given me some home-work to do.
In response to your question, I do believe that as technology becomes more advanced (including the use of AI) and as it becomes more commonplace in the classroom, the role of the teacher will change. I agree with Jonathan that AI or technology in general will not replace teachers. This is a concern fellow teachers have raised with me in the past and my answer has always been that we provide go far deeper than transference of knowledge; the human connection that teachers provide is not found in any other profession and it will always be required. We do however need to be aware and prepared for the way our roles will change.
Kamille