Technology Solutions for Developmental Math: An Overview of Current and Emerging Practices

Reviews current practices in and strategies for incorporating innovative technology into the teaching of remedial math at the college level. Outlines challenges, emerging trends, and ways to combine technology with new concepts of instructional strategy

Student experiences of technology integration in school subjects: A comparison across four middle schools

This research examined student perspectives on their in-school, subject specific, technology use in four U.S. public schools. Considering students’ perspectives may provide a significant reframing of adult-created rhetoric of the utopian power of digital technologies for changing teaching and learning. A survey and focus group interviews were administered to 6th and 7th students (n=1,544) in four public middle schools, with varying demographics, that rely on local funding. These four schools revealed moderate use of many well-established digital technologies, such as word processing, presentation software, and quiz games. Students voiced outright hatred for teacher-directed PowerPoint-supported lectures, the most prominent technology activity students experienced, yet reported enjoying creation activities. The students in the rural school with a Hispanic-majority and high economically disadvantaged population reported much lower technology use. Discussion frame the digital inequities in the four schools and emphasizes the need for awareness and inclusion of students’ digital experiences to form any trajectory toward establishing digital equity and learning in schools

Case study: Interactive spreadsheets

This paper describes how the Department of Statistics at the University of Cape Town (UCT) currently uses interactive spreadsheets to assist students in analysing and preparing summaries of data. It explores some of the potential benefits of making such resources more freely available to others as Open Educational Resources (OER), and outlines the key issues which would need to be resolved in order to do so. To this end, this paper discusses the pedagogical needs that led to the lecturers using the spreadsheet program MSExcel to encourage students to engage actively with statistical processes. It describes how the lecturers and students use these interactive spreadsheets and examines how well these interactive spreadsheets seemed to have worked, so that others who may have similar pedagogical needs can be alerted to the advantages and disadvantages of using this type of technology. In addition, this paper explores the possibility of these interactive spreadsheets being offered as OER first to other departments at UCT and then to a broader community

Engineering Students’ Perceptions of Mathematical Modeling in a Learning Module Centered on a Hydrologic Design Case Study

Engineering students need to spend time engaging in mathematical modeling tasks to reinforce their learning of mathematics through its application to authentic problems and real world design situations. Technological tools and resources can support this kind of learning engagement. We produced an online module that develops students’ mathematical modeling skills while developing knowledge of the fundamentals of rainfall-runoff processes and engineering design. This study examined how 251 students at two United States universities perceived mathematical modeling as implemented through the online module over a 5-year period. We found, subject to the limitation that these are perceptions from not all students, that: (a) the module allowed students to be a part of the modeling process; (b) using technology, such as modeling software and online databases, in the module helped students to understand what they were doing in mathematical modeling; (c) using the technology in the module helped students to develop their skill set; and (d) difficulties with the technology and/or the modeling decisions they had to make in the module activities were in some cases barriers that interfered with students’ ability to learn. We advocate for instructors to create modules that: (a) are situated within a real-world context, requiring students to model mathematically to solve an authentic problem; (b) take advantage of digital tools used by engineers to support students’ development of the mathematical and engineering skills needed in the workforce; and (c) use student feedback to guide module revisions

Exploring the bullwhip effect by means of spreadsheet simulation.

One of the main supply chain deficiencies is the bullwhip effect: demand fluctuations increase as one moves up the supply chain from retailer to manufacturer. The Beer Distribution Game is widely known for illustrating these supply chain dynamics in class. In this paper we present a spreadsheet application, exploring the two key causes of the bullwhip effect: demand forecasting and the type of ordering policy. We restrict our attention to a single product two-echelon system and illustrate how tuning the parameters of the replenishment policy induces or reduces the bullwhip effect. We also demonstrate how bullwhip reduction (dampening the order variability) may have an adverse impact on inventory holdings and/or customer service. As such, the spreadsheets can be used as an educational tool to gain a clear insight into the use of inventory control policies and forecasting in relation to the bullwhip effect and customer service.Bullwhip effect; Replenishment rules; Forecasting techniques; Spreadsheet simulation; Beer distribution game;

Spreadsheets Application in Teaching Data Management in Mathematics of the Modern World: Effects on Students’ Performance

This study aimed to investigate the effects of spreadsheet application in teaching Data Management in Mathematics of the Modern World on the students' performances among first-year College Students during the Second Semester of School Year 2022-2023. A quasi-experimental research design with the pretest-posttest non-equivalent groups design was employed in the study with the researcher–made questionnaire comprising 40 items test. The statistical methods used to gather data were treated using mean, t-test for independent samples, z-test for correlated samples, and standard deviation. Data were gathered from the 74 first-year college students in Jose Rizal Memorial State University–Main Campus. Results revealed that the pre-test and post-test performance of the students in the control and experimental groups was good. But their post-test performance in the experimental group was excellent. It is concluded that Spreadsheet Application is a very important and effective tool in teaching Data Management in Mathematics of the Modern World to first-year college students. Its application tremendously increases students' performance from the pre-test to the post-test