The topic we are covering in my Year 4 Mathematics class at the moment is Measurement, Chance & Data. This week we are focussing on reading and interpreting data. Yes, that old chestnut. And while there is probably nothing massively innovative with this lesson, my students were genuinely gasping with amazement and excited about the possibilities the technology offers them. The other aspect I was really proud of was how well the lesson tied in with a variety of topics.

After some initial brainstorming of their understanding in relation to data and graphing, some of the highlights included;

- analysing the information from a survey I conducted on our Year 3 - 6 students. This survey was based around the number and types of devices the students have in their homes, how often they use them and for how long. It also examined their online activities, such as how many students are regularly accessing MSN, email and Facebook. There were some amazing results.

- with Google Forms ability to summarise the information collected in a graph, we were able to delve into the data and really make sense of what the data was telling us. The variety of questions asked, from checkboxes to multiple choice also highlighted to the students the variety of ways survey questions can be presented.

- an in-depth and honest chat about internet safety. We looked at the number of students accessing social networking sites, discussed the recent changes to Facebook and the impact this has had on their privacy settings. We also discussed how to get on top of this situation, and shared the 'Reclaim Your Privacy' website. This website has been shared across our Learning Management System website for all parents, teachers and students to alert them to the fact there are 170 options required to be checked in order to make your site totally private! This link will help detect the settings you need to change. (Thanks to the @edtechcrew for the link).

- so then it was time to create our own survey using 'Google Forms.' We discussed how in the 'old days', we would send the kids around to other classes to conduct a survey, but now with tools like Twitter, I was able to send a message out and get immediate feedback from teachers all over the world. This was met with disbelief. Some students thought we may be lucky to get one reply by the end of the week.

- the students were keen to hear what teachers thought about setting 'Homework' and whether they thought it was really important or not. So we started to create our survey. This was a great opportunity to investigate what types of questions would be most suitable and give us the most information. The students also pointed out it would be wise to keep the survey short, so as to get as many people to reply as possible.

- so the call went out over Twitter and we shared the link to our survey. Having the Google Spreadsheet on our whiteboard, the students shrieked with excitement as the responses started flooding in. They literally cheered and clapped as teachers from all over the world responded to their survey. Of course, they saved their biggest claps for the teachers who felt homework is unnecessary!

Even I was blown away with the responses to the survey, so a big thanks must go out to everyone in the Twitterverse who has spent a few moments to complete the form. To have the students create their own questions, and get so much immediate feedback is sensational. It truly made me realise the power of collaboration, and how the Internet has managed to break down the challenges of time and distance. 

I now have a class full of students literally jumping around, ready to sink their teeth into the data collected. They cannot wait to summarise their results into a graphical form, and see what teachers really think about homework.

I will share our findings with you in a future post.

Looking forward to tomorrow's Maths session.

Cheers

AB