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Using Technology to Increase Student Involvement in the Math Classroom

Clint Parker

Department of Instructional Technology, Kennesaw State University

ITEC 7500: Capstone Experience & Portfolio

Dr. Tracy L. Borup

January 16, 2023

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Using Technology to Increase Student Involvement in the Math Classroom

The goal of my capstone project was to increase the overall student engagement in

the math classroom with the help of students having access to technology. This idea was

chosen after I read an article titled, Motivation in Elementary Mathematics: How students

and teachers benefit from Computers, written by authors S. Guha and J. Leonard. Students

are always going to have feelings for math either positive or negative. With the research

conducted for this project I looked to increase student involvement from a baseline to 85

percent in the math classroom. With the initial report of 65 percent of students being

engaged during math lessons, I feel that if technology is brought in that it would increase

the level of engagement.

During this project the teachers and students had access to 26 Chromebooks

provided by Cherokee County School District. With classes that were over 26 students

there was also iPads that were available to students who needed them as well. The plan is

that with proper coaching teachers in the 5th grade at Sixes Elementary will be able to use

these resources given to them and increase student engagement in the math classroom. As

the project facilitator I will lead different mini workshops to help instruct on how to engage

more students in the classroom. Teachers will be coached by myself on how to use different

tools to create different content on math curriculum. Teachers will learn if they would like

how to post different videos for students to watch to allow for more engagement. At the

end of the project the teacher would see if the different tools learned will allow them to see

any engagement with the students in reference to their math curriculum. The main goal of

the project was to make sure that teachers can reach 85 percent or higher engagement in

the math classroom with the use of technology.

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Description of Capstone Experience

This project was really one that has two parts to it. The first part was being able to

get all of the 5th grade teachers were comfortable with the technology to be able to use it in

their classroom. I spent time creating different mini workshops to allow the teachers to see

how easy it is to create with different web tools to get their content for their lessons. Some

of the teachers were really excited to reach their students in ways that they have not

reached them before.

The first workshop conducted was the one on creating their videos for their

students to either reference or use for flipped lessons. In my research students enjoy

watching different videos, and with that having them watching videos that the teachers

want is a bonus. Teachers did voice that they were nervous about getting their videos

exactly correct, but in the workshop, I explained that we are looking for the best when it

comes to the content it doesn’t have to be perfect. Students just love seeing videos of their

teachers, even if it math content.

The second workshop was with the platform itself that teachers would be using.

During this workshop I explained that our platform of I-Ready does a lot of different sorting

for the teacher based on the students diagnostic scores, and the different learning that the

students are doing. I-Ready is a self-paced program that would allow the students and

teachers to receive feedback from what they are doing. Teachers asked questions during

this workshop asking if there ways to preplan their lessons.

Other workshops were included that covered how to collect their data for our class

with ClassDojo and working with a new platform that is called Legends of Learning. Overall,
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the goal of the workshops were to meet with the team of teachers and allow them to feel

comfortable to work with the technology to link with the students in the classroom. As

stated in the Macrothink Institute, Teachers at Sixes Elementary did find that technology

would be enhancing for their classroom. (Aydum, 2020).

Implementation

During the implementation of my capstone project everything seemed to go as

planned. With the use of technology there will always be different struggles that teachers

will encounter, but I went in this project knowing that they are wanting to better their use

of technology. As I learned in my coaching course, allowing teachers to feel that they are

apart of the decision-making process really did allow more buy in from the teachers. Some

of the setbacks were on the part of teachers always want to be perfectionist, but I went in

letting the teachers know that the students really respond to the work of them trying to

connect it to their interest in using technology.

There were a few changes that allowed teachers to use the tech enabled lessons

even more. Prior to the start of my workshops, teachers at Sixes Elementary gained access

to Go Guardian, and another interactive math platform of Legends of Learning. The Go

Guardian piece was one that brought comfort to the teachers to allow them no stress about

seeing which students were on task or not. I feel this played a major role of meeting our

goal of 85%. The other was Legends of Learning. This platform was brand new for the

students and was great to keep their interest during the lesson.
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Project Outcomes

The outcomes of this project were amazing. With the mini workshops and the new

tools of Go Guardian and Legends of Learning, teachers at Sixes Elementary had no

problems with reaching the goal of having 85% of students on task during a math lesson.

Teachers stated that they felt more comfortable with their technology and really enjoyed

having more students on task. There were still issues with students not being on task for

longer periods of time, but as teachers check every ten minutes in a 90 minute class the

results were great. The goal will be to see if these results are able to carry over to their test

like their summative assessments and Georgia Milestones.

Barriers Encountered

During my project there were very few barriers that were encountered during the

lessons themselves. Teachers did voice that they worried about the students enjoying the

games and activities more than actually showing what they have learned from the content.

This was what was happening with the lesson on the Legends of Learning platform.

Teachers noticed that they were able to move through the lesson quizzes with no

accountability and making below passing grades. All teachers did reach out to the software

company to make sure they knew that quiz grade criteria would be a great addition to their

platform.

Another barrier we encountered would be what any teacher would. These are the

small hiccups when it comes to using computers. Different logon difficulties and

connectivity issues. Sixes Elementary has a great Instructional Technology help department

that many of teachers used during the project, unless it was something another teacher

couldn’t fix.
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Follow-Up 

Follow up work for my project could be to see if it is true what Fostering a “Head

Start” In Math and see if there is a increase in test scores (2019). The article states that they

saw a .07% increase in test scores, and I would like to see if there were any increases with

this year’s students. I feel that if I did a more inclusive look that students would have a little

more increase in their math scores due to the fact of the tech enabled lessons.

A second follow up I should have done was an exit questionnaire or survey. I feel

without taking a formal survey that with the coaching I provided that the teachers felt more

comfortable with using their technology. They really enjoyed using different ideas and

collaborating on different ways to embed different technology to keep students engaged.

Discussion and Reflection

During my capstone project I really saw how my new school uses technology for the

betterment of the school experience. I went into this project really looking to make minor

tweaks to the use of technology for Sixes Elementary school. With the help of myself and

other members of the school staff, adding more technology was made easier thanks to the

lessons that I had learned in my master’s program.

During this time, I saw throughout my mini workshops and helping other teachers

on my grade level how much teachers may be hesitant to use technology. This was shown

when some of the teachers that were in the meeting showed their hesitance when it came

to trying new programs. Teachers were able to build knowledge that they were able to use

during their time to make their data collecting easier, all while helping students remain

engaged with their learning. Overall, I feel that teachers dispositions on the matter of using
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the technology in their classroom did ease after the different tools were given to them and

they saw that the students really did enjoy learning with it.

The goal standards that I was trying to achieve during my capstone project were

also a success. I stated that the standards that were used were the ISTE standards 2.1 and

3.2. In standard 2.1 teachers were designing, and implementing technology enabled lessons

with their math content. With the help of different software like the use of I-Ready and

Legends of Learning teachers saw their learning engagement that increased with the use of

this in their classroom. Standard 3.2 called for teachers to manage their digital tools that

stayed in the context of the learning environment. Teachers planned different lessons with

the help and collaborations of others and saw the results within their classrooms.

Recommendations

Overall, my capstone project was one that Sixes Elementary had already established

well. When I came to Sixes, the school had established the use of the I-Ready tool, but as a

new teacher to the district I really was able to try and boost the use of the software in a

positive way. If there were any recommendations that I would give one would be to try

collect milestones data to see if there is any change. In my research there was many

different researchers who saw changes in big assessments, but I was not able to collect this

data due to the short implementation of it. I do feel that it would increase the test scores

because students would retain the information of their math lessons, but that is only for the

test data to show. With this project coming to a close I do feel a great amount of success is

in the cards with teachers continuing to use technology to enhance their lessons. The

students of today really enjoy working with different technologies, so as teachers we

should meet them where they are to make sure they are successful.
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References

Hol, D., & Aydin, I. (2020). Is technology in our classrooms? EFL teachers’ beliefs and

engagement with technology in the classroom. Journal of Educational Issues, 6(2), 38-58.

Pelkowski, T., Herman, E., Trahan, K., Winters, D.M., Tananis, C., Swartz, M.I., Bunt, N., &

Rodgick, C. (2019). Fostering a “Head Start” in math: Observing teacher in early childhood

mathematics engagement. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 40(2), 96-119.