ARTICLE: Solving Algebra on Smartphones

[Ryan Goble]

From Education Week...

Published Online: March 16, 2010

Published in Print: March 18, 2010, as Solving Algebra on Smartphones

Solving Algebra on Smartphones

Using her school-issued smartphone, Katie Denton, a junior at Dixon High School in Holly Ridge, N.C., reads the biographic profile of a student from another school that is also participating in a Project K-Nect math class.
—Sara D. Davis for Education Week

Research shows that a project to use the devices as teaching tools in some N.C. districts has had a measurable impact on student achievement in math.

By Michelle R. Davis

If North Carolina high school junior Katie Denton struggles with her Algebra 2 homework, she knows she’s not on her own.

Denton can use her school-issued smartphone to send instant messages to her teacher or classmates for help. She can use the same device to connect to the Internet and post an algebra question on a school math blog. Or she can watch student- or teacher-created videos demonstrating algebra concepts on her smartphone screen.

Her math class is taking part in Project K-Nect, a grant-funded program that has adopted smartphones as teaching tools in some math classes in a handful of North Carolina school districts. Research on the program has shown a measurable effect on students’ math achievement, and the organizers of Project K-Nect say students have driven the program to heights they never imagined.

“Most adults laughed at the idea that students would create a blog on solving linear equations,” says Shawn Gross, the managing director for Digital Millennial Consulting, an educational technology consulting firm based in Arlington, Va., that oversees Project K-Nect. The first week of the program, students posted 75 video blogs on just such a math topic.

Read the full article here...