WideNet: Widening Participation with Networked Classroom Technology

Principal Investigator
Nancy Ares
Assistant Professor, Teaching and Curriculum

Description
This project explores the use of networked technologies to engage students in rigorous math and science learning. Local high school classrooms are serving as research and field-testing sites for a system being developed by Texas Instruments, HubNet/Participatory Simulations and SimCalc. Classrooms using this technology provide important, unique contexts for examining participation of underserved students and issues of culture in design and use of educational technologies.

Using software on graphing calculators connected by wireless hubs, students at East High School in Rochester, NY work together to solve complex math or science problems. Participatory simulations such as the “elevators simulation,” “predators and prey,” and “spread of disease,” leverage the power of group interaction in learning. Led by teachers and researchers, these simulations allow students to work individually or in small groups, while contributing to the real-time development of the classroom’s shared construction of a mathematical or science object or system, visually displayed on a screen in front of the class.

Classroom discussion and analysis of the visual display engages students in important scientific or mathematical discourse, reasoning and practices (e.g.: hypothesizing, analyzing graphs, relating graphical and symbolic representations, predicting, abstracting) about challenging topics (e.g.: rate and amount, linear and more complex relationships, spread of disease). As students share their hypotheses, predictions, and explanations about the objects developing on screen, they shape whole class content understanding. The activity provides opportunities for students to contribute their social, cultural, and academic resources in engagement with mathematical concepts embodied in the participatory simulation.

A unique feature of this project involves including youth themselves as co-researchers. High school students from participating mathematics classes learn about educational research and cultural relevance, conducting observations, writing field notes, and interviewing. They then work with us to design their own mini-studies, most recently of Spades play, the Step team, and the football team. Students conduct interviews, gather information about the history of the phenomenon, observe the participants, and analyze the activities to identify the mathematics involved, as well as exploring the historical literature and their own experiences. Later meetings turn to collaborative data analysis, so they learn about and conduct analyses of interviews and observations. Finally, we work to synthesize the analyses and other information and produce a presentation to faculty, students, families, and staff on the University campus. Developers and researchers from Texas Instruments and the HubNet/Participatory Simulations (University of Texas-Austin, Northwestern University) and SimCalc (University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth) projects use research findings to help them develop culturally relevant technology and refine the designs of their networked systems.

Supported By
Texas Instruments and the New York State Department of Education (Teacher/Leader Quality Partnerships Program)

Timeframe
5 years