5 EdTech Tools for Statistics Teachers (and Other Teachers Too)

Key points:

As technology continues to infiltrate and expand into our classrooms, educators need access to high-quality, subject-relevant educational technology tools. As a high school math teacher about to begin his first year of teaching AP Statistics, I find myself searching for arrows to add to my math arsenal.

For any teacher just starting this process, or any teacher looking for a fresh perspective, here is a list of five great tools, which could be useful for other subjects as well.

1. Google Forms: A great tool for collecting data. Teachers and students can create surveys to collect data from students, staff, or anyone else. Question options include multiple choice, short answer/paragraph, linear scale, check all that apply, and more (for numerical responses, use the “short answer” option and be prepared for students to add unnecessary labels, spaces, and write their answers as words). Survey results can be linked to a Google Sheet for easy analysis and sharing.

2. Google Sheets: A simplified, easy-to-use, shareable spreadsheet. While not as robust as the industry standard Excel, Google Sheets has all the options a teacher is likely to need and offers the convenience of sharing for schools using Google Drive. Students can use columns of numerical data to create charts, calculate statistical values, and organize data to help them investigate patterns, correlations, and trends. Students can also learn many of the same spreadsheet formulas as Excel.

3. Geogebra: Analysis and graphing technology with pre-built activities. Geogbra has tools for everything visual and tangible in math. It has a great spreadsheet feature, allowing for easy one- and two-variable statistical analysis and all the main visual representations a teacher is likely to need. It also contains great geometry tools for properties of triangles, circles, and more. Plus, it contains a multitude of free, pre-built activities from Geogebra and other teachers. Most activities can be embedded, so students don't need to leave the safety of their LMS's class website.

4. desmos: The go-to website for math teachers to create graphs and activities. Math teachers love Desmos. graphic calculatorAll you need to do is type in the equation you want and there's the graph. Learning the keyboard shortcuts makes this even more efficient. Finding the coordinates of intersections, zeros, and vertices is as easy as clicking on them. Polar coordinates, radians, and degrees are options that make the tool versatile for higher-level math as well. For both math and non-math teachers, Desmos has tons of activities created by Desmos and teachers (helpful tip: Google “Activities” for math and math classes).issue Desmos” if you are having trouble searching in Desmos). You can set up your classes in Desmos and monitor their progress through activities from the teacher side of the website. You can use predefined activities, create your own, or modify existing ones by making a copy.

5. The staple food: Statistics Activities and Simulations. This activity is primarily intended for statistics and math teachers. It is specifically designed for statistics concepts and simulations. The simulations focus on data analysis and probability. They include more advanced topics such as t distributions and chi-square distributions. The app allows hundreds or thousands of simulations to be entered at a time. With the activities, students can follow along and enter their own values ​​and see the class results in real time. Students can work on activities together with a class code or individually.

One of the biggest challenges for a new or veteran teacher taking on a new classroom is finding the right educational technology tools to use in their classes. My hope is that this list will help someone find the tools they need to be successful in their classroom.