For me, Google Docs won’t have offline support until I can actually edit the document offline. Being able to view a document is one thing, and a step in the right direction, but offline editing and resyncing upon reconnection (which Google Gears actually supported before it was cancelled) isn’t here just yet.

WIth all the great things Google does, I hope they’ll re-enable this feature soon!

Thanks for remembering who the audience of this post is for. For 99% of HS students I think Google Docs can replace what they need. It doesn’t do everything Word does but then again I don’t use everything Word does. For the 1% of things that Google Doc doesn’t do that Word does I can be creative and find another program to make it work.

I just wish Macs were not so costly. I would have gotten my wife a Macbook if it hadn’t been 50% more expensive than a comparable Dell PC.

Teaching of the material, thus, was the first boost I wanted to give to my “value added” and I did that. Now, I feel very confident in explaining complicated math ideas to anyone so that they are logical and coherent.

As the material has become second nature, I have begun to focus more on the students themselves and how I can nurture and mentor them more explicitly. Last summer, I went to the Stanley King conference where I learned counseling skills I could use with high school students. I also took a communication workshop. And, I’ve made a concerted effort to be a better listener and make myself more available to my students. In the last two years, these efforts have truly paid off and my “value added” now goes beyond “content provider.” I do think I am better prepared to aid students in more than just their academic development. And this, I think, makes me a better teacher.

Josh, the graphic was taking from a PowerPoint presentation during which more information regarding that statistic was given. The 47% refers to the percentage of students in my AP Physics class that had not turned in at least one assignment during the time period in question (the unit lasted about 3 weeks). The 43% refers to the fact that, for those students who were missing at least one assignment, the average number of assignments they were missing from my gradebook was 6 out of 14 collected. Some were only missing 2, some were missing 10, but the average number of missing assignments of the 14 I’d collected was 6.

I have the advantage in AP Physics that most of these students are highly motivated to do well, for lots of different reasons, so they mostly do make good use of the resource. We spend time in class talking about how it’s not really going to help you very much if you just copy the solutions down… and in fact, some of them are quickly coming to learn how true that is this week. In any event, I think that the potential misuse by a few students is far outweighed by the advantages that the resource has provided.

My quibble, Richard, is regarding the “2008 – Average number of missing assignments” statistic. What did you average and how did it equal 43%? Did you find the mean of something?

I started doing the same thing this year in my 9th grade GAT math course. I post my worked out solutions on my web page. Since this is the first year I have taught GAT, I have no basis for comparison, so I will not know if posting solutions is having the same impact in my class. My concern is that many students are not utilizing this resource. I have made it compulsory on a few occasions for them to correct their work with the answers.

Just so I understand: you post solutions before the assignment is due, correct? So, if I am in your course, I could be sitting at my desk doing my physics homework, and, should I get stuck on #6, I could navigate to your site and see your solution to #6 and use that to correct my thinking? Is that your expectation for how it gets used?

Amid the push to better incorporate technology (computers) into our practice, many people simply did what they always did, but in a slightly more tech-savvy way. The teachers who simply took the same old handouts and emailed them– instead of photocopying them– were incorporating technology into the class, but what’s the value added then? Essentially, there is no change, except for saved paper and a higher risk of student distraction. The perception, at the time, was that if you weren’t radically rethinking the ways in which you incorporated technology into your class and presenting material in revolutionary new ways, you were doing it badly.

I’m not saying this is wrong– it might not be. But the concerns are pretty self-evident. Stubborn teachers resist change. Open minded teachers express interest in changing their practice think that they need extensive professional development to essentially re-learn how to be a teacher. Which costs tons, in time and money. All in all, the task seems too daunting, an uphill battle. Give me back my photocopies and leave me alone.

What you’ve done here– providing students with the answers in real time– is something different altogether. It’s not exactly radical, but it’s innovative. What strikes me is that it doesn’t require a complete paradigm shift or require us to rethink our roles as teachers. In fact, it was the proficiency and self awareness with which you were doing it the old way (struggle through the homework, go over it in class… just like when we were students) that tipped you off to a new idea: give them the answers when they need them most– when they are struggling through the problems. The technology was incidental– merely a tool you could use to do what you always do in a different/better time-frame.

In my mind, this does exactly what technology in the classroom should do– not rewrite what it means to be a teacher, but allow us to address the age-old challenges of teaching and learning in new and innovative ways. Keep the ideas coming.