For more than 40 years, efforts to close the educational achievement gap have been largely unsuccessful (Haycock, 2001). As recently as 2015, The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) estimate that 7% of students between the ages of 16 to 24 fail to graduate each year (U.S. Government NCES). My mission is to utilize technology to engage at-risk students. Research points to this as the key to reaching our most vulnerable populations by motivating, supporting and preparing students for future learning (Darling-Hammond, Zielezinski & Goldman, 2014; Roblyer, 2016).
In mathematics, technology supports three learning goals. First, it is important for students be active in their acquisition and consumption of factual knowledge. Second, students must attain procedural mathematical fluency. Lastly, students must have an opportunity for inquiry to gain conceptual knowledge. Access to technology provides equality to information, allowing for efficiency in skill practice, and supports learning of abstract concepts through the use of technology to model abstract concepts. For the at-risk student, technology also serves to engage unmotivated students through gaining attention, illustrating real-world relevance, and encouraging high-levels of learning by supporting lower-level skills (Roblyer, 2016). My vision is to utilize technology to support and engage all students in learning, while remaining focused on our most vulnerable student populations. By using educational technology in a constructivist learning environment, students gain knowledge by participating in the experience (Roblyer, 2016).
Haycock, K. (2001). Closing the achievement gap. Educational Leadership, 58(6), 6-11.
Roblyer, M.D. (2016). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching (7th Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics. (2015). The condition of education (NCES 2015-144), Status Dropout Rates. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2015/2015144.pdf