The Use of Tablet PCs in Early Mathematics Education

Ananda Gunawardena, Daniel Petty

Carnegie Mellon UniversityPittsburgh, PA 15213

WIPTE 2007

Tablet Math Whiz System

• Goals Create an environment similar to paper and

pencil – smart paper Immediate feedback Automate the grading process Provide flexibility for self-study or teacher

assigned exercises Goal oriented problem sets Capture scratch work Provide an online management environment

Tablet Math Whiz System

• Technology A Tablet PC based client as student interface

• C# application A web application for classroom management

• Asp.net Supported by CMU servers for all pilot studies

Login Screen

Self Study Guide

Student Scratch Work

Teacher Login

Teacher Access

Teacher Assigned Exercises

Student login Receives assignment

Student work on it

DB

Scratch Work for incorrect Problems

Deployment

• Glendale School District Located in Central Pennsylvania

• Technologically advanced• Per capita income $17K per year

Tested on 3 classes of fourth graders (60+ students)– 6 Tablet PC’s placed at the end of the class– Students spend 30 minutes each week on Tablet Math– Pre and Post tests – More importantly change in teacher and student behavior

» Student motivation and sustainability» Teacher using data to change the pedagogy of classroom instructions

We also conducted a usability study with CMU-HCI graduate students

Research Questions?

• How will teachers and students react to the system?

• How will teachers integrate the system into their current curriculum?

• What attributes are needed in order for tablet PC software to be successful?

Setup

• Three classes

• Each class used the tablet PCs for six weeks

• There were six tablets set up in the back of the classroom

• Teachers assigned an “exercise” for their students to complete each week

• If students finished the exercise, they worked on their own

Results

• Students completed 18,992 problems

• Students skipped 2,211 problems

• Class A average – 74.38%

• Class B average – 75.96%

• Class C average – 85.59%

• Teachers assigned 15 exercises over 18 weeks

Student Results

• Problems Completed by Students

Class Addition Subtraction Multiplication Division

Total

1 1646(310) 1126(427) 542(107) 113(34) 3427(878)

2 6014(1049) 1978(957) 2584(548) 95(11) 10671(2565)

3 3283(271) 25(1) 3797(752) 0(0) 7105(1024)

Total 10943(1630) 3129(1385) 6923(1407) 208(45) 21203(4467)

Student Data; Incorrect/Skipped Responses in (Parentheses); 2211 Problems were Skipped

Student Perception

• When students were asked ''On a scale of 1-5, how much fun did you have using the Tablet Math System,'' 29 of the 49 students surveyed selected 5, the highest level of fun

• When students were asked “On a scale of 1-5, do you think you did better at math on the tablet pc or on paper?,'' 25 of the 49 students surveyed selected 5, indicating they did better on the tablet

Students having fun

Student Perception

Teacher Perception

• Middle of the road

• Teachers found it difficult to conduct class when six students were on tablets and other students were working on a different activity

• Teachers were not too involved in checking scratch work online

Analysis

• Students need immediate ink recognition Class C average was much higher because

immediate ink recognition was added between classes B and C

• Teachers need to get involved

Current Projects with Gaming• Integration of two ideas

Flash card based games (in class use) Tablet Math Whiz (in use at schools)

• Gaming and Tablet Math

Team 1Team 2

Source: Images.google.com

Future Plans

• Open up the system to new problem types Word problems Geometry Calculus

• Get teachers involved in Question Authoring Human feedback

• Enhance usability for students—including better ink recognition

• Meld tablet aspects with intelligent tutor aspects Automated feedback Automated Guidance

Want to use the Software?

• CMU is looking for schools with Tablet PC’s to be pilot participants

• Problem types can be expanded to fit middle and high school curriculums

• Pilot schools will have access to tablet Math Whiz as well as online management system

• We just create a teacher account and teachers can then manage the class online

• We can provide data (including scratch work) filtered by various criteria's

• Interested? contact guna@cs.cmu.edu http://srv01.pragma.cs.cmu.edu:1200

Acknowledgements

• The authors of this study would like to give the utmost thanks to the Glendale School District, Superintendent Dr. Dennis Bruno, 4th grade teachers Pam Moyer, Dawn Covino and Jen Lechner. The authors would also like to thank the Tablet Math System Development Team including: Amanda Bradford, Henry Shin, David Stern, E Ho Kim, Yerlan Burkitbayev and Charmaine Chen. The authors would also like to thank Professor Kevin Stolarick and Professor Robert Siegler for their help. Parts of this study and software development were funded by Hewlett-Packard Corporation.