Purpose
In spring 2020, educators throughout the world abruptly shifted to emergency remote teaching in response to an emerging pandemic. The instructors of a graduate-level synchronous online geometry and measurement course for practicing school teachers redesigned their summative assessments. Their goals were to reduce outside-of-class work and to model the integration of content, pedagogy and technology. This paper aims to describe the development of a digital interactive notebook (dINB) assignment using online presentation software, dynamic geometry tools and mathematical learning trajectories. Broader implications for dINBs as assessments in effective distance learning are presented.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative analysis in this study consists of a sequence of first-cycle coding of mid-semester surveys and second-cycle thematic categorizations of mid-semester surveys and end-of-course reflections. Descriptive categorization counts along with select quotations from open-ended participant responses provided a window on evolving participant experiences with the dINB across the course.
Findings
Modifications to the dINB design based on teacher mid-semester feedback created a flexible assessment tool aligned with the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework. The teachers also constructed their own visions for adapting the dINB for student-centered instructional technology integration in their own virtual classrooms.
Originality/value
The development of the dINB enriched the TPACK understandings of the instructors in this study. It also positioned teachers to facilitate innovative synchronous and blended learning in their own school communities. Further analysis of dINB artifacts in future studies will test the hypothesis that practicing teachers’ experiences as learners increased their TPACK knowledge.
In response to the global health crisis, K-12 mathematics teachers were forced to rapidly transition to online learning and assessment. The mathematics teacher educators in this study identified an unprecedented opportunity to design and facilitate more equitable assessments that leveraged emergent collaborative technologies. They replaced traditional written reflections with a digital interactive notebook (dINB) in a graduate synchronous online geometry and measurement course for practicing teachers. This prototype of an authentic integrated online assessment model emphasized cycles of reflection and revision based on instructor and peer feedback. While the K-12 teachers enrolled in this course valued the dINB as evaluative of their own progress toward content mastery, they faced challenges in realizing the full potential of this model to integrate formative, summative, and ipsative assessment functions in their own classrooms. Implications for the development of K-12 teachers' TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) and their readiness to use more innovative forms of assessment in virtual learning are presented.
The Teaching for Robust Understanding framework facilitates online collaborative problem solving with digital interactive notebooks that position all students as doers of mathematics.
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