EDU352 Week Four Reflective Journal

This week's journal prompt for my Foundations of Educational Technology class, asks me to describe a time when I have used specific data to make an instructional decision.  Because I am not yet a classroom instructor, I am instead supposed to choose any time I have made a learning-related decision.  So I have been sitting here racking my brain trying to think of what I should write about.  Maybe it is a matter of good timing, but as luck would have it, I have recently began a new venture as a substitute teacher at my daughter's elementary school.  This past week, I was in the same first grade class three days in a row. Each day after lunch, the teacher had asked me to help administer the end-of-year math assessment to the students.

The children all had individual dividers they erected on their desks to prevent their eyes from wandering to their neighbors paper, and there was to be no talking.  The teacher also left specific instructions to read each question multiple times to the students to make sure they understood what was being asked of them, and to not let the students work ahead. Every student was to be working on the same problem at the same time.  The first day I administered the test went okay.  The students were all quiet enough, but the whole time I wondered if I was giving them enough time to complete each question... or on the other hand, too much time.  It seemed distracting to continually walk around the classroom checking each student's paper to see if they had written down an answer.  At some point during the second day, it hit me.... I remembered reading about a simple assessment tool in one of my previous classes and I decided to put it into practice.  "Thumbs up if you are done with this question, or thumbs down if you need more time," I told the class.  The students all looked at me and raised their hands, quietly displaying either a "thumbs up" or a "thumbs down".  In a manner of seconds, I was able to take a quick glance around the room to see which students were still in need of more time.  No walking around the classroom, peering over students shoulders.  Just a simple hand signal.  That's it.  Assessment complete.

This particular journal prompt has stumped me a bit this week for a few different reasons.  The first reason being that unless you are or have been a classroom instructor, I am not sure every aspect of the prompt can be fully answered.  And the other big part of the prompt that has me flustered is this: 

How might technology have enhanced the gathering and use of that data? 

Well, if you take the experience and example that I have written about, what would you say?  How would you use technology to enhance the gathering and use of data, which in this instance is determining when students have completed a question and are ready to move on to the next.  Is technology even necessary in this instance?  Throughout this class, I have been learning the various ways to integrate technology into the classroom.  Yet, I (and the rest of my classmates) have been repeatedly told and referred to articles, blogs, and videos, where it is emphasized that technology should only be used if it can enhance the lesson or the learning experience. It should not be used as a replacement, and the lesson should not be built around technology, rather the standards and the lesson should be considered and developed first and then, if necessary AND applicable, technology can and should be integrated.

I recently came across this little picture on the website edudemic.com and thought it was a perfect fit for both my current class, as well as for this journal prompt.

While giving the students the end of year math assessment, I needed to find a way to quickly and efficiently assess whether the students needed more time to complete the current math problem before moving on to the next.  I suppose if some sort of "clickers" were available, I could have set that up somehow so that students could push a button to indicate they had completed the problem.  However,  not only do I see something like that being more of a distraction to the students than anything else (not even taking into consideration the pleas of "Oops!  I didn't mean to push the button! I need more time!), but I do not feel that by integrating that sort of technology, or any other type of technology into this particular circumstance would satisfy or "check the box" of any of the bullets depicted on the "Technology Should" graphic above.  With that being said, and with everything I have learned thus far in EDU352, I am going to have to take a stand then and say that technology would not enhance the gathering and use of data in this particular learning-related experience.