Tablet PC’s and 9th grade algebra class - growing pains.

[Beth Adamczyk]

We began our tablet program this year with our 9th graders. Our goal, of course, is to integrate technology seamlessly and make it a part of our culture. Right now, I am having a small “crisis of faith”.

I chose to begin the program by focusing on paper reduction. I felt that these were skills all of my teachers could understand and work together to achieve right now. My expectations were that from this starting point we would move towards a new way of teaching by exploring all of the possibilities made available by this connection to the rest of the world. I am proud and happy to say that many of my teachers are already doing some really creative things.

My confusion currently is with my 9th grade algebra program. The Math teachers took me at my word and resolved to create a paperless classroom. They created One Note sections for each chapter which included practice worksheets in .jnt format inserted in the pages. The students copy and ‘unpack” these One Note sections into their Algebra Notebooks as they begin each new chapter. The notes taken in class and the several worksheets for each chapter are all together in one place. Individual .jnt format worksheets can be put in the dropbox, graded and returned electronically to the students.

We continue to have instances of students accidentally deleting the .jnt icons and not hitting the “undo” button soon enough. The fact that the screen is so small and there is no room to “spread out” has been another complaint. All in all, most of the students are not at all happy with the system and would prefer paper and pencil.
The most important thing is for them to learn their algebra. That is difficult enough. Why should this tool make it even more difficult? If we continue to teach exactly the same way, this new technology does not make things better. Is saving paper worth sacrificing learning? Of course it’s not.

So, where do I go from here? One of the teachers just asked me if she could go back to paper. If I say yes, am I taking a step backwards or forwards?

[Tami Brass]

I don't know if this will help, but our 7th grade math teachers are using tablets with OneNote as well.

Rather than kids handing in work in drop boxes, we have a system of shared notebooks on the server. Students create the shared notebook in a folder to which they and their teacher have full read/write capability. (We create these for each class section along with copy, drop & share folders.) A cached copy stays on the student tablet, but the original lives on the server. Teachers also open this original which creates a cached copy on the teacher machine.

Teachers make the sections for kids, but instead of embedding the jnt files, teachers create tabs for various tasks - class notes, practice, etc. Assignment practice is done under a homework or practice section as a new page.

We use Novell for our network currently, but we're transitioning to a Windows network next year. Most schools I know doing this are using Windows networks.

We do have a couple of kids using paper as an adaptation, but only as that. It's not the norm.

I hope this helps.

[Beth Adamczyk]

Hi Tami,

Thanks so much. Could you possibly email (or put on dropio) a section for me to see? Do your teachers create the practice problems right in the One Note? Do the students use a textbook to get the practice problems and just put the answers in One Note? Would any of your Math teachers be interested in being a "pen pal" with one of my Math teachers?

Beth

[Jim Foley]

Beth, I've been using 1-2-1 tablet pc's in my algebra classroom for the last 2 years, and I highly recommend the shared notebooks that Tami spoke of. This setup allows you to make some powerful advances in learning, especially if you take advantage of some additional capabilities such as:

1. Using OneNote's hyperlinking feature to create meaningful connections to students' prior knowledge. I create a single page outline that describes how each Chapter/unit fits together, and link each portion of the outline to individual pages and/or problems within OneNote. I show & refer to this outline on a frequent basis during class, reminding students where we've been, where we're going, and where to look for answers to some of their questions. On a given note page, you can also put links referring back to a previously-covered topic, problem, or chapter for reference. I just finished a unit on Quadratic Equations with my algebra 2 classes, and they really appreciated how this helped them distinguish the forest from the trees.

2. Using Jing, a free screencasting tool, to enable students and/or teachers to record quick, off-the-cuff videos of themselves solving problems or explaining concepts with the tablet. My students use it to record vids of themselves solving particularly difficult problems, so when they try things for homework later they can remember exactly how they did it. I require Jing vids for assessments sometimes instead of "traditional" tests, and I also create videos for homework viewing to introduce some concepts and free up what would otherwise be "lecture" time in class.

There's a lot more that tablets and OneNote can facilitate in your class, but it depends on where your teachers are already. For example, do they know about how you can collapse the notebooks and pages for more screen space? There's also a full-page view which my students particularly like for tests, gives them the max screen to work with. I'd be happy to correspond with you or any of your teachers if you'd find it helpful. Good luck!