This semester the mathematics department has a new math course, MTH 120. It is not an algebra course, however, it does require some algebraic thinking (kind of like real life). As I was planning for this course I decided to make it a technology rich course with lots of class group activities.

I asked to teach it in an active learning classroom and reserved the classroom set of ipads for the semester. Then I set forth to determine what apps would best fit the course content. I settled on Notability, CloudOn, ShowMe, Nearpod, and Dropbox. To use this technology in the classroom I have to teach the technology. I have students with absolutely no experience to those who own their own ipads and can teach me a thing to two. I am pretty sure that I had one drop because of the technology. The students are coming along pretty well, although I think there are still a couple who have no idea how to put their work into their dropbox.

Here’s how a lesson/activity plays out. I develop an activity outside of class, the web is a great resource. I write the activity and save it as a pdf file, which is uploaded to the Moodle course site. When class starts, the students download the file from Moodle and open it in Notability. During class they write their class notes on this document. Notability has many colors of pens and highlighters, as well as the ability to type. Students can also take a picture and place it directly into their notes. This is handy when we are using a manipulative or if they want a copy of something someone else has done. At the end of class, the student upload the document to their dropbox where they have access to it from their personal devices. It saves as a pdf, so there is no trouble reading it from another device.

For the most part, the students are doing very well using the technology. They have become good at changing from one app to another to investigate something and then going back to Notability to write notes and answer questions. Most students stay totally involved for the entire class period. The best thing, though, is that these students have their notes with them, and organized, all the time. I had a student come into my office to ask a question. I asked her what she had done on a similar problem we had done in class. Out came her phone, she had immediate access to those class notes. We looked at what she had done in class and she had her answer. It was exciting to see the use of technology work so well.

My class is basically paperless. I like that. I would like for the students to do paperless homework as well, but that would require they all have a personal ipad – maybe sometime in the future. I have become more paperless also. If I am writing a key, I open the document in notability, write the key, and post it to Moodle. I am getting to where I prefer to write my keys on the ipad rather than on paper. If I use my ipad, I don’t have to worry about scanning a document to post it on Moodle, or about losing a paper. I will probably make a few changes to the course next semester, but I won’t stop using the technology.