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Snorkl: A revolutionary voice interaction tool for math education
C
Contenjoo
Introduction
Emily Castano has been a 7th grade math teacher at Chipa Junior Senior High School outside of Akan, Ohio for 7 years. She discovered and began using Snorkl in November 2022, especially in preparation for and reviewing state tests. Emily says Snorkl has allowed her to significantly improve her traditional classroom teaching, blended learning, and “Mathematically Thinking Classroom” approaches.
Three Key Teaching Techniques Using Snorkl
1. Improving traditional classroom teaching
In traditional lecture-style classes, feedback can only be received from one student at a time, making it difficult to get feedback from all 15-25 students. In addition, there was a problem that the learning content was not transferred to the students' long-term memory.
Snorkl provides the following features to solve these problems:
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Provide students with opportunities to verbally explain and justify their mathematical ideas.
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Provides individual support and immediate feedback
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Facilitating the transfer to long-term memory
Emily cites research from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) that shows that when students are able to verbally express and justify their mathematical ideas, they achieve deeper understanding and long-term success.
2. Improve blended learning
In blended learning environments, there were issues such as difficulty for one teacher to support multiple students at the same time, lack of immediate feedback, and limited opportunities for high-performing students to develop.
Snorkl provides the following solutions to overcome these limitations:
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Provide immediate feedback to all students simultaneously
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You can check students' understanding in real time.
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Providing additional challenges for top students
Emily cites a study from the Journal of Educational Psychology that found that students who received immediate feedback were 20 percent more successful on future tasks than those who didn't.
3. Improving the ‘Mathematical Thinking Classroom’ Approach
Emily highly values the book "Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics" and uses the ideas from the book in conjunction with Snorkl. The approach involves dividing students into random groups and having them solve high-quality problems in a vertical, non-permanent workspace, such as a whiteboard.
However, in group activities, lack of individual student responsibility and unbalanced participation within the group can be problems.
Snorkl provides the following methods to solve these problems:
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Provide opportunities for individual explanations after group activities
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You can check each student's understanding level
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Improve collaboration and communication skills
Emily cites another study from NCTM, which found that 74% of students reported greater engagement and understanding when discussing issues with their peers.
Snorkl's main features
1.
AI Feedback: Provides immediate, personalized feedback on students’ answers, including guidance questions for incorrect answers and suggestions for better explanations for correct answers.
2.
Voice Description Feature: Provides students with the opportunity to verbally explain their solution process. This allows you to better understand their understanding.
3.
Upload an image: Take a photo of your whiteboard work and upload it. The AI will also evaluate the image to provide a comprehensive analysis of your student’s work.
4.
Snorkl Coach: A conversational learning assistant with AI that provides step-by-step guidance when students get stuck on a problem. This feature is currently in development.
5.
Question Bank: Snorkl has a question bank with math problems of various levels, making it easy for teachers to select high-quality problems.
Real-world usage examples
Emily introduces a problem of calculating discounts as an example of a lesson using Snorkl. Students solve a problem of comparing discounts offered by two different stores. In the process, students apply various mathematical concepts such as percents, integer operations, and decimals.
Students first solve the problem in groups, then individually explain their solution using Snorkl. This allows the teacher to accurately gauge each student’s understanding, and provides additional learning opportunities for students to listen to each other’s explanations and provide feedback.
Conclusion
Snorkl is a tool that revolutionizes mathematics education, increasing student engagement and promoting deeper understanding. It can significantly improve the quality of mathematics education by providing immediate feedback, personalized learning experiences, and a collaborative learning environment.
Emily Castano recommends the book "Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics" to all math teachers and emphasizes how Snorkl can be used to implement the ideas in the book more effectively. She believes Snorkl is not just a technical tool, but a powerful educational tool that enhances students' mathematical thinking and communication skills.
Snorkl is constantly evolving, with more features coming in the future. Emily is excited about how these innovative tools will brighten the future of math education, and she hopes to continue sharing her ideas with other teachers.
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