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Going digital with math homework
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Throughout the past 10 years, Albany School District has continually upgraded technology in order to help promote growth in 21st century skills and to increase efficiency and effectiveness of teaching. One of the newest ways student learning is being affected is through the use of digital online math homework for high school math classes.

The concept is simple to grasp. Rather than completing homework with paper and pencil, students utilize electronic devices to complete and turn in math assignments. Students sign in to the website www.bigideasmath.com where a multitude of resources exist in order to support learning and provide immediate feedback.

One of the main resources on the website is a homework portal where students can access classroom assignments from any device with an internet connection. The assignments can be custom designed by the instructor in order to differentiate to students with different needs and provides the instructor with classroom-wide breakdowns of student progress on assignments. As Albany High School's math teacher, the online homework has made grading and analyzing homework fast and efficient. I can see exactly what students struggle with in a homework assignment and then adjust my classroom lesson accordingly.

In addition to the instructor benefits of the online homework, students have benefited from many of the homework resources as well. When students answer a question, they can instantly check their answer with a click of a button. If the answer is incorrect, the student may try again or can access a number of different supports from inside the homework assignment. These supports include: videos of worked-out examples, electronic lessons from the textbook, interactive software for graphing and live tutors during the evening hours. Students also enjoy not having to take home a large math textbook (a dynamic e-textbook is another resource), as well as the freedom to turn in assignments even if they are unable to make it in to school.

Albany school staff involved with the new digital homework are confident the new medium for completing and analyzing homework will continue to improve the math achievement of Albany High School students.