To edTech or not???

This was my lesson today where I used some technology….

In our Volume of Cylinders & Prisms grade 9 applied lesson we started out grabbing an Explain Everything file from our Google Classroom.

Our first problem embedded within the file was You Pour, I Choose from Dan Meyer. We watched the Act 1 video and then students filled out a google form embedded right in Explain Everything. The form asked them what questions they had after seeing the video.

The next slide showed the forms responses in a google sheet!

The students got to see live what each other were asking. Most kids had the same question…..Which had more or do they have the same!!

We then made guesses using a form……and saw each others guesses.

After, we set out to work deciding what we needed to know before answering the problem……mades some guesses along the way and then solved the problem!

I’ll admit that we had some internet connection problems accessing google forms and every time we do I seriously think that it wasn’t worth it……but today it seemed worth it because it gave some of those shy kids a voice in my class. I’ve worked on problems like this and when I ask students share their questions….guesses…..usually the “brave” kids make their voice heard and the shy ones are left out (unless I ask them specifically). The tech today even though was spotty……served a purpose……its for small reasons like this that I keep trying out edTech in the class!!