Buzz Math Differentiated Learning For All Students Renate Davis ITEC 7445 Professor J. Pearson March 28, 2016 Emerging Technology

Buzz Math What is Buzz Math ? Buzz Math is an on-line program, which is also available as a free iPad app, that helps students learn and practice math concepts which support the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and Common Core standards. It offers the users various practices that focus on key concepts and skills needed to master the standards.

How Does Buzz Math Support the Technology Vision In Our School? McClure Middle School believes that technology can promote higher order thinking and other 21st century skills. McClure encourages teachers to use technology to promote collaboration between the teachers, students, and parents through the use of web 2.0 tools. McClure believes that technology can help raise achievement levels in the core content areas.

How Does Buzz Math Support the Technology Vision In Our School? Buzz Math is an application that can support McClure’s technology vision as it: Allows teachers to collaborate with their students through the program. Teachers can see how the program aids in achievement levels by identifying the progress of each student. The program is accessible through the internet or students can download it as an app on their devices. It is compatible with Mac, Linux, and Windows machines and most web browsers that are available.

How Does Buzz Math Support the Technology Vision In Our District? Cobb county’s priorities for technology include: Providing targeted resources for students who are unsuccessful in math, not reading on grade level, or those who are not on- track for graduation. “Identify and provide resources to increase opportunities for advanced, on-level, and remedial students to earn initial credit, embedded credit, dual credit, recovered credit, distance learning, and certifications in areas of student interest.” Buzz Math gives targeted practice to students who are struggling with the math concepts and skills. Teachers can assign individual tasks or practice to meet the needs of the individual student.

Target Population Buzz Math is appropriate for grade levels six through eight. McClure serves 1200 students, with 26% being economically disadvantaged. Many students in this demographic do not have internet access at home, so it is recommended that teachers and students utilize this technology during school hours. Students who do not have access to the internet should be allowed to work on this program while at school and be offered the chance to come in before school starts or stay after school ends to utilize the resources that this product has to offer.

Target Population cont’d McClure has a population that is approximately 18% SPED and 25% Gifted. McClure has 3 full computer labs, a complete computer lab in the media center, a laptop cart of 18 computers, 30 i-pads, 10 i-pad minis, and at least 2 computers in each classroom. All teachers possess a county-owned laptop which can be used to access the program anytime.

Objectives Increase student achievement by using technology to motivate and encourage students to practice math concepts and skills. Assign and monitor content practice by element in the math domains to identify areas of weakness or strength. Remediate students who are not mastering the math standards in the on-level and small group math classes. Give teachers access to needed student achievement data in order to plan instruction.

Benefits of Using Buzz Math The most important benefit is that students have the chance to practice math in a fun and engaging way. The Johns Hopkins University study (2015) showed that the program helped the students understand the material while it allowed students to “learn in the way that I do best.” Teachers can assign specific activities to individuals in order to meet the needs of each learner. Teachers can track assignments on their device or online to collect participation and accuracy data. The program has many problems that require higher-order thinking skills to find the solution.

Safe and Ethical Use of Buzz Math Students have individual access to the password protected program and are able to work through the various activities at their own pace without other students knowing their progress. The program does not contain advertisements and only the teacher can see the students’ activities and scores. Students can only receive messages from the teacher or the program application itself at the present time. The company may upgrade this to allow students to communicate with one another.

Equipment and Software Buzz Math has a free app that can be downloaded and installed on an iPad that is running at least iOS 6.1. It does not have an android or iPhone/iPod option at this time. Since the technology has an internet-based option, the program does not contain an install component for online access. Anyone with a PC (Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10 & XP), Mac (OS & 10.6+), or Linux computer and an internet connection can login to the Buzz Math website. It is compatible with the following web browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 8+, Safari, and Opera.

Technical Support Buzz Math has an online help center that includes detailed teacher and student guides as well as frequently asked questions, interface guides, and a link to the online technical support as well as phone support. The app for the iPads will have upgrades that need to be installed as they are published. Our media center specialist regularly updates the apps on all of our iPads.

Limitations The Buzz Math app is not available for Android tablets, Kindle, Nook, or any mobile phone at the present time. The app does not include videos or how-to instructions for students to “learn” the math like some other websites. Parents must create their own account with their child (for a fee) to see their child’s progress unless they have their child sign-in to see his or her progress.

Limitations cont’d Some key and useful components, like the read-to option for students and progress monitoring for teachers, are only available with the Premium Access.

Cost of the Technology The basic program and app are both free for students. There are some parts of the app/website that are only included in the Premium Classroom, like: The read-to option which reads the questions to the student. A detailed solution to the problems. Challenge missions for students which increases engagement and competitiveness. A basic license (which includes unlimited student logins) for teachers is also free, but to be able to obtain detailed reporting (which tracks the student progress), the Premium Classroom needs to be purchased. The cost of a 30 user license is $150 for an entire year. The company will provide a quote for teachers or schools needing more than 30 users.

Cost of the Technology cont’d Since Buzz Math is web-based, students can use the computers at school or at home to access the program. McClure currently has several computer labs that the teachers can use as well as a few computers in each classroom. Since the program is also available as an iPad app, the students can check out the iPad minis in the media center or the teacher can check out the iPad cart on practice days.

Potential Funding Sources McClure Middle School has a foundation that will raise and donate money to teachers for items that promote student improvement and achievement. Teachers can write grants to our local PTSA, who give out at least $5,000 a year to teachers who apply and need the funds to improve student achievement. Teachers can create a proposal on DonorsChoose.org and try to raise funds for their individual classroom’s Premium access.

How Will We Use Buzz Math ? Since practice is vital in mastering math concepts, teachers can use this technology to encourage students to practice the math skills that are learned in the classroom. Teachers can track individual student progress as well as time spent on the activities through the teacher dashboard. Teacher can communicate with students individually or as a group through the program to extend the learning beyond the classroom walls. The data that the teachers receive with the program can be used to identify areas of remediation and enrichment for individual learners.

How Do We Use Buzz Math ? Cont’d The technology can be used to meet the student technology standards by Using (math) models to explore complex systems. Communicate information to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. Use critical thinking skills to solve problems using appropriate digital tools Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology Transfer current knowledge to learning new technologies.

How Does Buzz Math Promote Specific Learning Goals? Buzz Math has a variety of activities that target specific content standards and math skills/concepts. Cobb County and the state of Georgia changed the math standards from the Common Core last year to the Georgia Standards of Excellence. These standards are approximately 98% aligned to the Common Core and NCTM standards (which is what the program is tailored to). Students can be individually assigned a custom set of practices to meet their specific learning goals. Groups of students can be assigned a set of activities and the teacher can make it an accuracy competition which can promote a healthy and fun learning environment.

How Could Buzz Math be Used to Differentiate Instruction? Teachers can assign practices based on the student’s needs. Students who master the content of a specific area can move ahead and receive challenging problems or go on to the next section or grade level. Students who need remediation can be assigned sections that will address the weaknesses by: Practicing the skills and knowledge base (from a previous grade) that is needed for the new math content. Allow them to see how the problems should be solved if they answer the problem incorrectly. Students can click on the read-to option for those who are ELL, below- grade level readers, or have the read-to accommodation in their IEP. The screen font can be increased as needed for the visually impaired.

How Could Buzz Math be Used to Differentiate Instruction Continued… Teachers can assign practices based on the student’s needs. Students can click on the read-to option for those who are ELL, below-grade level readers, or have the read-to accommodation in their IEP. The screen font can be increased as needed for the visually impaired.

How Could Buzz Math Promote Communication? This technology does not allow students to communicate with one another through the program itself, but it does allow the teacher to communicate to the students either individually or as a group. To help promote peer-to-peer communication, the teacher can place students in pairs to work on different skills/concepts, with each student being assigned an activity that is a weakness for them, but a strength for the other. For any problems that are incorrect, the partner can look at the work and help identify where the error was made. This would allow the students to help one another while promoting communication and error analysis skills.

Evaluation of Research There was only one study completed by Johns Hopkins University as to the effectiveness and overall feedback for the technology. The study found that: 89.3% of the students felt that “the program helped them understand the math material” 81.7% of the students had an improvement in their math learning confidence. 71.8% of the students felt that the technology increased their interest in learning math.

Evaluation of Research The Johns Hopkins (2015) study also found that the teachers felt that the program was “easy to use, relevant to their class’ instructional needs, and enhanced their ability as teachers to achieve lesson goals.” The study found that the students used the program twice as much outside of class as they did while in class.

Implementation Plan The school needs to identify if this is an area in need for the entire school. If the need is present then the school should do the following: Identify which teachers will be participating Introduce the teachers to the new program - show them how to access the site, create the classrooms, assign tasks to the students, and show them the teacher dashboard and how it works. This can be done as a group (using the tutorial videos in the program) in two subject-area meetings or a single clusters at each grade level, which would be approximately 90 minutes.

Implementation Plan Continued… Print off a resource sheet that shows them the basics and how to reach the technical help page on the website. Check with teachers periodically to see how they are doing with the new technology. Place the study guides on the McClure website for parent and student access.

Reflection With so many different math apps available, I originally thought that I would have a hard time finding one that could work well with my entire school, let alone my personal classes. I was pleasantly surprised when I found Buzz Math. I loaded it on my iPad and was impressed with the different problems and the variety of models that it has the students use when solving the problems. The teacher tools are not available for the free app, but you can “see” what they would look like if you did purchase them, and I am planning on implementing this tool in my classroom next year based on what I have seen.

Reflection I believe that this project has strengthened my professional practice as I can identify and evaluate tools that would be beneficial to my classroom and school. Our school requires us to use student data to drive instruction, and the teacher tools in this program, give the specific kind of data that our administration is looking for. As the math coordinator for my school, I want to help my peer teachers find ways to make the math practice more engaging for the students and easier for the teachers to collect the needed data. I am eager to share this tool with them!

Works Cited Morrison, J. R., Ph.D., Ross, S. M., Ph.D., & Lesiczka, J. K., Ed.M. (2015). Report for iZone, NYC Department of Education: Results of the BuzzMath Short-Cycle Evaluation (Tech.). https://screenshots.scolab.com/Public/PDF/Buzzmath_Re port_JohnsHopkinsCenter_2015.pdf