Introduction
The internet has been able to connect people across the globe and smart devices, e.g. smartphones, have twice the processing power of personal computing machines that were in existence as little as ten years ago. This globalization movement and increase in technology have left few areas where people work in isolation. Milton Chen (2010) described in his book, Education Nation the importance of student collaboration and the integration of technology into the classroom and argued that “students benefit from hearing and reading how others learn (16).” He believes that the American public education system needs an overhaul in order for students to be competitive in a globally connected society where technological skills are essential. Students born in the “digital age” have access to limitless information because they can learn anything by simply typing a query online. I have become fascinated by this instant access to learning materials, and as educators; I believe that our role as the primary bearer of information to students has shifted. We need to be able to show our students how to properly use technology to access limitless amounts of information and promote student collaboration in order to prepare them for a world in which these twenty-first century skills are essential. I am currently doing my student teaching at a high school where students appear to lack the collaborative and technological twenty-first century skills necessary to be competitive in a globally connected society.
I was the first person in my family to graduate high school, and subsequently graduate from a university. My mathematical high school experience consisted of direct instruction followed by practice problems on a worksheet; practically every day. When I started taking university level classes I felt like a deer in headlights because I was scrambling to keep up with the learning that was taking place. My peers were collaborating outside of class, using the internet, going to office hours, and here I was looking to the textbook for all my information. To be honest, I had no idea you could even google math problems. Many students today have instant access to materials but lack the skills necessary to learn content knowledge from these resources. Therefore, I want to investigate the effects of students using peers and internet resources to learn content knowledge.
Currently, I am student teaching Intermediate Algebra and Data Statistics to high school students in grades ten, eleven and twelve in San Diego County. These students are in this class because they previously failed a math class or did not perform well on the mathematics portion of the California Standardized Tests (CST’s). The class consists of multiple students designated as English Language Learners (ELL’s) and students with Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s). In addition, there is an additional teacher aide in the class because of the high number of students with special needs. During class, students sit in table groups of four that have already been pre-selected and are encouraged to work together on each assignment. My initial observations have yielded the following:
These observations led me to conduct a needs assessment in the form of a survey that asked the questions shown below. The results of the student responses are on a chart in the next slide that follow the questions.
The internet has been able to connect people across the globe and smart devices, e.g. smartphones, have twice the processing power of personal computing machines that were in existence as little as ten years ago. This globalization movement and increase in technology have left few areas where people work in isolation. Milton Chen (2010) described in his book, Education Nation the importance of student collaboration and the integration of technology into the classroom and argued that “students benefit from hearing and reading how others learn (16).” He believes that the American public education system needs an overhaul in order for students to be competitive in a globally connected society where technological skills are essential. Students born in the “digital age” have access to limitless information because they can learn anything by simply typing a query online. I have become fascinated by this instant access to learning materials, and as educators; I believe that our role as the primary bearer of information to students has shifted. We need to be able to show our students how to properly use technology to access limitless amounts of information and promote student collaboration in order to prepare them for a world in which these twenty-first century skills are essential. I am currently doing my student teaching at a high school where students appear to lack the collaborative and technological twenty-first century skills necessary to be competitive in a globally connected society.
I was the first person in my family to graduate high school, and subsequently graduate from a university. My mathematical high school experience consisted of direct instruction followed by practice problems on a worksheet; practically every day. When I started taking university level classes I felt like a deer in headlights because I was scrambling to keep up with the learning that was taking place. My peers were collaborating outside of class, using the internet, going to office hours, and here I was looking to the textbook for all my information. To be honest, I had no idea you could even google math problems. Many students today have instant access to materials but lack the skills necessary to learn content knowledge from these resources. Therefore, I want to investigate the effects of students using peers and internet resources to learn content knowledge.
Currently, I am student teaching Intermediate Algebra and Data Statistics to high school students in grades ten, eleven and twelve in San Diego County. These students are in this class because they previously failed a math class or did not perform well on the mathematics portion of the California Standardized Tests (CST’s). The class consists of multiple students designated as English Language Learners (ELL’s) and students with Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s). In addition, there is an additional teacher aide in the class because of the high number of students with special needs. During class, students sit in table groups of four that have already been pre-selected and are encouraged to work together on each assignment. My initial observations have yielded the following:
- Students have difficulty collaborating together.
- Students struggle using resources available to them to learn mathematics.
- Students have difficulties completing in-class activities.
- Students struggle on performance task assessments and end of unit summative assessments.
These observations led me to conduct a needs assessment in the form of a survey that asked the questions shown below. The results of the student responses are on a chart in the next slide that follow the questions.
As I previously stated, my observations showed that students struggle when they work in collaborative groups because of their inability to complete in-class activities. However, the needs assessment I conducted yielded surprising results. Students enjoy working in groups; feel that using outside resources such as the internet would be helpful on assessments, and when they want to learn something they use the internet as their primary source of information (see chart above). Therefore, I want to investigate the following question: what happens to student learning when students are allowed to seek peer support as well as online and classroom resources during classroom learning activities and assessments?
- What is the effect on in-class assignments?
- What are the effects on test scores?
- What are the changes in student attitudes during in-class activities?
- Are students able to transfer their learning during assessments when they do not have access to online resources?