Foxborough Teachers are Transforming Teaching Through Technology in the Classroom

Editor's note: The following was submitted by Assistant Superintendent of Foxborough Public Schools Amy Berdos.

Technology in the classroom was on display at Monday's School Committee meeting at Foxborough High School as Ahern Middle School math teacher Adam Gravit was joined by seventh grader Caroline Cutillo to showcase the wonders of a document camera.

The simple technology was made available through a FACES grant that is enhancing learning. Gravit shared with the committee how the document camera has made a difference to teaching and learning in the classroom.

Whether sharing documents from a print source or displaying student's work, the document camera has the ability to immediately project items for the whole class to see and it provides a powerful and efficient way to share ideas with students. 

The math teacher explained this device allows him to project students' work on the spot and provides a great way for students to share their own solutions to problems in real time with their classmates.  

"Time on learning" is important and having the ability to show students' work with the whole class in this immediate fashion provides a more efficient use of class time. In the past, you would have to wait for students to recreate their work at the front of the room in order to share with others how they went about finding a solution to their problem.

This is not the case with this simple technology solution.

Gravit explained the document camera is also a great way to critique each others’ work, which is emphasized in the Common Core State Standards.

In addition to displaying and projecting documents or demonstrations for the whole class to see there are many other applications being explored, one of which is displaying student created tutorial videos.

Cutillo demonstrated this by using the device to record an algebra problem she solved for the school committee Monday. Using a piece of paper with a word problem printed on it, Caroline walked the audience through her solution to the problem, specifically highlighting the elimination method as her choice for solving the systems of equation problem.  

The camera recorded her voice and her step-by-step solution as she modeled how to find the answer to the problem. In the end, the video took less than two minutes to create.  

The seventh grade class had recently completed a unit on solving systems of equations and the elimination method was one of the methods students learned during the unit of study.  

"It's different having a classmate create the video, much different from just hearing it from the teacher," said Gravit.

Gravit explained after the video is recorded he would publish it using Schooltube and upload it to his Edmodo page for other students to access.

Schooltube is a video sharing website for teachers and students to share video content and Edmodo is a private and secure educational social media learning platform used by teachers to connect with students and share content.  

The committee agreed that the uses for the document camera are endless for teaching and learning. Providing visual displays and videos utilizing the document camera is one more way teachers are transforming teaching through technology in Foxborough Public Schools.