Tablet Usage in Secondary Mathematics Education and Recommendations for Improving Its Effectiveness in the Classroom

As part of my honor's thesis project at Assumption College, I have been researching the ways that teachers are currently using tablets in their secondary mathematics classrooms. My thesis compares the benefits and drawbacks of having tablets in classrooms, tablets for every student, or no tablets at all. In the spring, I collected survey feedback from mathematics teachers in four different local school districts. I analyzed the data in order to determine the ways tablets are being used in classrooms, the reasons preventing teachers from fully integrating tablets into their instruction, the impacts training has had on tablet use, and what can be changed in order to make teachers more comfortable with integrating tablet technology. Teachers' main problems were lack of resources, lack of preparation time, and lack of training. This thesis provides evidence that enforces the idea that with proper training, the other obstacles that keep teachers from integrating tablets dissipate and allow for teachers to effectively use tablets as a supplemental tool that increases adaptability, efficiency and engagement and enhance learning in the classroom as a whole.