Technology Reflection: Instructional Use of SmartBoards

Description/Experience
Mr. Graham came into last Friday’s technology seminar to gives us a demonstration on using interactive whiteboards, or SmartBoards, in the classroom. SmartBoards are a really unique and interactive tool that teachers all over the country are using to make their instruction more interesting. SmartBoards can be used simply as a whiteboard, or they can be used to play interactive educational games. Mr. Graham also mentioned that many teachers have Mobi Boards, which are little white boards that teachers and students can carry around and write on. Whatever you write on the little board shows up on the large SmartBoard in front of the room. The Mobi Boards are really neat, but Mr. Graham noted that they come with a high level of frustration because you cannot see what you are writing. Nonetheless, both teachers and students can use the SmartBoard and its accompanying technology in a wide variety of ways.

Application
All semester long, I have been working with 4^th graders who are in the advanced section of 4^th grade math and are, therefore, studying the 5^th grade math curriculum. Recently, my mentor teacher presented a lesson on the census, what it is, and why we have it. As a follow-up project, the 4^th graders came up with questions and conducted their own 4^th grade census. For this project, they distributed the census forms to the rest of the 4^th grade students, collected the data, and compiled the results. When the results were assembled, the students expressed them in fractions, decimals, and percents. This served as an excellent way to practice conversions between fractions, decimals, and percents.

Mr. Graham introduced us to a website called the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives that can be used with SmartBoard technology. Here is the link: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html. This website is well-organized and easy to use, and contains a wide variety of math manipulatives for grades Pre-K through 12. Under the “Data Analysis and Probability” section for grades 3-5, I found an excellent bar chart manipulative application that I think would be great for the students to use to compile their data and look at it in a variety of ways. Here is the link: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_323_g_2_t_5.html?from=category_g_2_t_5.html. Even though it is important for students to be able to convert decimals, fractions, and percents with pencil and paper, the bar chart application would serve as a wonderful way for students to see a visual representation of their data. It would also allow them to check their work.

Timeline of Events:

• After all of the 4^th grade census data is compiled, students look closely at their results. The results are put in the form of decimals, fractions, and percents and students should have a clear understanding of how to convert back and forth between these three forms.
•  The teacher then pulls up the 3^rd through 5^th grade Bar Chart application on the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives website.
• The Bar Chart allows you to do one element at a time. Students could begin with something like “Number of Siblings” and then move on to other things.

• Let’s stick with “Number of Siblings” as our example. Students would put this as their title. Then, based on their data, they would label their axes. By simply touching the SmartBoard, students can select different areas to label. When everything is labeled and ready to do, students can then chart their data. Each bar has a different color, making the chart very easy to read.
• Once all of the data is compiled on the graph, there are two more things that the students can do. Below the chart, there is an option called “Totals”. When you click on this bubble, each bar is labeled with the total number of units in it. This allows students to make sure they entered all of their data correctly.
• Beside the “Totals” bubble, there is another option bubble labeled “Percentages”. When you click on this data, it gives you the percentage that goes along with each variable. This, too, would allow students to check their percentages and visually see their data in front of them.

Reflection
Pedagogical-Content
The point of the census lesson was not only to understand why we use the census in the United States but also for the students to make their own census and use the data to understand conversion between fractions, decimals, and percents. Putting all of the technology aside, it is important that students are able to do these conversions accurately without the use of calculators or bar charts. When teaching this concept, I think it is important as a teacher to do several examples and practice problems on the board with the whole class. Using our “Number of Siblings” example, let’s say that there are 100 total students in the 4^th grade. 35 of these students have two siblings.

First, the teacher could show the number in fraction form. This should be easy for students to comprehend because the fraction bar between the numerator and denominator can also be refered to as “out of”. So, since 35 out of 100 students have two siblings, we could write it as 35/100. Next, students can take what they already know about decimals and place values to determine what they think the appropriate decimal value would be. Since there are 35 parts of 100 here, we know that we have 35 hundredths, or 0.35. To convert a decimal to a percent, the last thing that needs to be done is to move the decimal point two places to the right, giving us 35%. It is also easy to remember that percents are defined as out of 100, so if we have 35/100 we can determine that this, too, is 35%. Students need to be able to do this on their own with different values before they use the technology I discussed earlier.

Technological-Pedagogical
SmartBoard technology would be used in this lesson to help students compile their data and give them a visual representation of fractions, decimals, and percents. Students must be careful that all data is entered in correctly. I think the best way to go about using the Bar Chart manipulative would be to divide students into groups and give each group a different variable that they are going to chart. One at a time, the groups would come up, give their chart a title, label their axes, and chart the data. Then, they could explain their data values to the class. Dividing students into groups allows for better classroom management during this activity. If students were not divided into groups, I feel like the activity would be more chaotic because nobody would be assigned a specific task.

Technological-Pedagogical-Content
This technology allows students to create their own visual representations of the data they collected. After the skill of converting between fractions, decimals, and percents is mastered, students can also use this technology to check their work and display their findings in front of the rest of the class. Many students are visual learners, and there is a good chance that they will be able to understand their data better when they see it in a visual form. This activity will also provide students with better insight as to how a SmartBoard works. Getting up in front of the board, touching and typing on the screen, and plotting data that was is completely different from coloring a bar chart on a worksheet. However, I feel like students would like to use the SmartBoard to chart their data because it is big, bright, colorful, and most importantly – something different. The “Data Analysis and Probability” section also allows you to create pie charts. Students could also practice representing their data this way, as it gives students an accurate visualization of parts making up a whole. Without the use of this instructional technology, students would still be sitting in their seats using colored pencils and paper to make bar charts.