Math Solving Apps And Distance Learning.

 

In these times of uncertainty, it is hard for students to get the personalized help they need when learning mathematics.  Although my school is mostly green, a certain number of students are in quarantine each and every day.  Just this past few days, we’ve had COVID hit, so all students are on distance learning and we’ve had teachers out for various reasons including quarantine.  

The science teacher is off long term, so he sends his sub regular work packets but the students have discovered that with a bit of searching they can find the answer keys to those work packets and simply copy everything down so they don’t have to do much.  I suspect several of my students are doing the same thing for their math assignments or are using a app that will show them the steps and the answers.

I suspect this because one of my students who struggled, suddenly began turning in work that was 100 percent correct.  Unfortunately, when I gave the test, he failed it completely.  He also made a comment about “Photo Math” so I think he was using that program or a similar one.  This is a very real issue both in distance and in person learning.

I am not opposed to using technology to find the answer but most students just copy without trying to figure it out.  I’ve looked at one app where they have a few steps written down but the steps are not written out in typical math language.  

For instance, I gave it the problem 2x + 3 =7.  For the first step it wrote 2x = 7-3 and for the explanation it said to move the 3 to the other side and change the sign rather than telling students to add -3 to both sides.  So it tells the user the short cuts without the mathematical reasoning.  

Sometimes, I assign just a few problems but I require students to show their work and explain what they did for each step.  The reason for the justification is that students who use the apps have to slow down and include everything.  If they use an answer key, the answer keys often do not list the explanations for each step so the student either doesn’t include that part or they have to figure it out.

In addition, when students have to write out justifications or explanations for steps, it lets the teacher know if they really understand the process and the concepts involved in finding a solution.  Furthermore, this is good  because it helps students develop the mathematical vocabulary necessary to communicate their thinking to others since many have trouble with this.  

Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear from you.  Have a great day.