Student Voice on Technology

As I looked at the reflection questions in Kasey Bell’s new book Shake Up Learning, I began thinking wouldn’t it be interesting to see what my students have to say about some of them.  The specific questions that led to this thought were the following:

What opportunities has technology brought to your classroom?

What problems or barriers keep you from using technology effectively?

Bell, Kasey. Shake Up Learning: Practical Ideas to Move Learning from Static to Dynamic (Kindle Locations 653-654). Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

I was really curious what my students thoughts were.  So, I put them in a end of unit feedback survey. I slightly rephrased them to be a bit more specific to our classroom, but they were essentially the same question.

For a little background on the state of technology in our school. Our students are 1:1 with Chromebooks and we have public wifi network, private wifi network, and a specific chromebook network. Before the Chromebooks, I had a cart of iPad 2’s in my classroom. We still use those iPads for some data collection and creation apps not available on the Chromebooks.

Opportunities technology has brought to physics classroom

“I can learn more personally in a big class.”

“Many different opportunities to learn”

Universal Design for Learning informs us that different learners may have different strengths when in comes to how they access information, engage with information, and express mastery. Different modes have always been available. But having multiple sets of materials for student to access information has not always been physically or economically feasible. The school library can only hold so many book and videos on a specific topic. In addition, the ability to manage different learners working on different tasks wasn’t easy unless they were rote routines.  

“It has allowed me to learn easier and be more organized.”

“It's made it easier for me to keep track of my past labs and stuff we've done in class.”

We are a Google Apps for Education district. In addition, we use Canvas as an LMS. The ability for students to use Google Drive to store and share their work is amazing. I use the Google Sheet add-on Doctopus to create physics folders for my students and distribute templates for labs. Then, they submit them to Canvas when completed. The digital submission allows me to provide feedback easily in order to allow students to revise and resubmit their work.

“Technology lets us more easily explore concepts like when we use simulations.”

“Has allowed me to visually see and understand things with graphs and simulations”

It is amazing how many great simulations are available for free on the internet.  My two favorite sites for science simulations are INTERACTIVE SIMULATIONS FOR SCIENCE AND MATH and oPhysics: Interactive Physics Simulations. One key to these simulations is that the majority of them work on Chromebooks.  That means that each student can utilize them on their 1:1 device. The other key is that these are interactive simulations where students can truly manipulate variables.  The don’t simply click and watch a video. They allow students to experiment with variables and visualize their relationships in a way an equation doesn’t always communicate. They can clearly see cause and effect relationships and understand the model of a phenomenon. The ability to develop and use models is one of the 8 Science and Engineering Practices in the Next Generation Science Standards. So, it’s wonderful to see learners realizing the power of these simulations to represent complex ideas.

“Rather than drawing out graphs and other activities, I get the opportunity to do it with technology in physics class. Also, using Video Physics is always fun.”

“It also is a good way to show comprehension and physics learning targets by creating a video, analyzing video and using digital models.”

There are a few different Next Generation Science Standards specifically related to making and interpreting graphs.  These include: Planning and Carrying out Investigations, Analyzing and Interpreting Data, and Using Mathematics and Computational Tools. We have an app on the iPads called Video Physics.  It allows us to track the motion of any object using a video we take of it moving. We simply use our fingers to add dots to the moving object. This data can then be exported to an app called Graphical Analysis which will create detailed graphs of the information and allow us to perform quantitative analysis of the data including applying curve fits. It is the most powerful physics tool in my classroom because it helps learners make the connection between what they see with their eyes and a graphical representation, either points plotted over the video or points plotted on a graph. They are able see how these graphical representations can be used to describe the real world motion they observed.

What problems or barriers keep you from using technology effectively?

About half of my students said that there was no problems or barriers that kept them from using technology effectively. The other response could be grouped into 4 different categories

“Lack of knowledge on how to use.”

“I'm not the best at working technology.”

While having a variety of different creation tools With so many different options for creation available to learners, it can be easy for them to get confused. For those who aren’t comfortable with technology having guides is essential. But, most of my guides and instructions are online. Having hard copy versions of these guides will be something I’ll need to invest time in. A digital cheat sheet for a tech tool isn’t always helpful for someone who is not comfortable in the digital world.

“When the technology is not working/ not loading.”

“We use technology so much and sometimes our Chromebooks can be really slow. “Older technology like the ipads or poor network.”

We are in our 2nd year of 1:1 schoolwide. So, running into network issues is to be expected. Honestly, there will always be days when the wifi is better than others. With more users, comes lower speeds. That is just a fact.  The internet could always be faster. I remember in college when it took half an hour to download an online image. I think helping learners set realistic expectations for network performance will do more than making small upgrades to bandwidth. I imagine that over time there will be more issues with student hardware and compatibility. The iPad 2’s in my class can still run the video analysis software but many of the other apps have upgraded to newer versions which may not run on the current iOS available on iPad 2’s. Or if they do run, they tend to bug out. Again, the real life learning is that we can’t always have the best and newest tech in our hands. How will learners be able to do the most with the tools they have and see the power that these tools have even if they aren’t the newest best version.

“Some sites that may help with recording audio or using YouTube videos in other video making sites are blocked.”

Our district uses Securly for a web filter tool. Students have full access to YouTube, but there are a number of sites that are blocked due to certain keywords. But, we have a great system for teachers to submit sites to be whitelisted. Once a site is requested, it is usually accessible in 24 hours. We have a similar process for chrome apps and extensions.  Most are blocked until a teacher requests. Then, they are unblocked in a few hours. Our IT department is highly responsive and trusts the teacher’s judgement.

“Social media is a distraction.”

When learners are using technology with open access to the internet, they can be tempted to be distracted by their social media feeds or simply connecting with friends via text messaging. For learners to recognize that it is a potential problem or barrier is a great first step. As it is for all of us, technology is a great tool for productivity but an equally powerful tool for distraction. Finding that balance between the two is a struggle everyday. Every learner is at a different place with their ability to keep those distractions at bay while for others, that distraction prevents them from even getting started with the task at hand.

I’ve spoken time and again how important feedback in the classroom is. I will always value the open and honest feedback my learners provide. I know if it weren’t for the digital tools I use in my classroom (like Google Forms and Pear Deck), I wouldn’t be able to hear the voice of every learner and they would be less likely to provide that honest and open feedback to me.