cj, Insouci, Bill, and Botts, whilst I have been distracted you have attacked the idea of software as “User Friendly” “Tools” with such flair, that I have had to festoon myself with garlic and lash myself to a series of sheep, just so that I could calm my thinking enough to join the discussion.
What does technology want from us? So long as the garlic stays fresh and I am connected to the sheep I can argue that software wants us to be more efficient.
Take Google – it allows students to search for popular information more efficiently than students did 20 years ago. Has the quality of the information retrieved by students increased because of technology? No
Take Photoshop – it allows students to create an image (by selecting from a software menu) more efficiently than students did 20 years ago. Has the quality of images students create increased because of technology? No
Take Excel – I work in primary and secondary classrooms where every vertical surface is plastered with carefully colour themed Excel charts, tables and graphs. Classroom visitors are awe struck with the statistical thinking in evidence on the walls - impressed with the explicit evidence of “statistical learning through ICT”.
I could argue that Excel "allows students” to store, manipulate and present data more reliably, more tidily, and more efficiently than students could twenty years ago.
But does all this, “allowing” through the mediation of Excel, mean that the process of storage, manipulation and presentation of data is made more meaningful to students? Probably not.
Has the quality of student’s statistical understanding of data increased because of what Excel has allowed? Probably not.
Indeed I am beginning to believe that the ease of software mediated chart creation has reduced students’ opportunities for statistical reflection. The charts and graphs and tables are created so quickly – just button the button, that there is no time to reflect on the creation process itself.
I suspect our students are deceived by software, undone by the ease of data presentation when using ICT.
Why do I think this? Consider the learning "in the context of statistics" we seek for our students.
A critical step in the development of students’ statistical thinking and reasoning involves thinking about changing representations of data to develop understanding of what is being observed.
Excel certainly allows students to construct many different graphs and charts, but unless this is accompanied by critical explorations of the patterns and relationships of what is being observed these Excel graphs and tables cannot be equated with an enhanced ability in statistical reasoning.
Excel mediated charts and graphs are instead used as data candy for the walls of the “statistically deceived”.
Check out the Excel graphs on classroom walls in a school near you - you will be struck by what is too often absent – something that is much more significant in building statistical understanding than the graphs themselves. What is missing is any sign of a student critique/ evaluation of the options they considered and the decisions they made in their choice of statistical representation for their data.
Displays that are the result of telling students to create a bar graph and then teaching them the steps to do this with Excel are unrelated to statistical reasoning, do not develop statistical thinking, and probably never will.
I can sense the garlic falling off here but I suspect that “Excel uses us poorly" in that it's much valourised "efficiency" develops a learner expectation that statistical thinking simply requires neatly constructed "button the button" colour themed charts.
This expectation creates an ICT reliance and compliance when it comes to statistical thinking, which can result in an unwarranted faith in the validity of technology mediated statistics.
If any of this is true, then Excel is revealed as being efficient at betraying student statistical reasoning.
Recent Comments