December 2024

CPM is about more math, but it is also about more people. Since 2008, when I took a summer job through a connection in my CPM precalculus class, I have been surrounded by people passionate about student-centered math classrooms. Five years later, I was working full time at CPM. In the years since, I have worked with many math teachers, and I will say that their passion for education and math is incredible. 

I have worked on much of the technology developed to support how students experience math curriculum: The first version of Homework Help, the original eTools for CPM eBooks, and the licensing system.

It has really been a journey for me. I have learned so much by working at CPM, which is great because the learning never stops. The same goes for technology. All technology must be iterated and refined into something as easy as possible for people to really use.

Expanding Learning Opportunities in the Math Classroom with EdTech

The power of technology is that it opens up new opportunities in general. This can include new ways to teach and new ways to learn—different people learn in different ways and different ideas resonate with different people. Education technologies help expand the opportunity space, opening up different ways to engage with curriculum materials and advance learning. They remove barriers or friction, making it easier for a student to come to the table or a teacher to support different kinds of students. Ultimately, technology integrated well allows for increasing accessibility.

Classroom Technology Provides Tools of Opportunity and Choice 

Near the beginning of my time working on technology in education, it felt like an augmentation. I was taking something that was already in a physical curriculum and then making it digital. Or I was creating supports like eTools, animations, and Homework Help. The work was about creating additional opportunities for people who were interested. Curriculum still stood on its own without technology.

What I have seen over time is more and more embracing of technology. CPM’s Inspiring Connections curriculum in particular was built with technology at the core, in order to bring in new types of teaching and learning that would not be possible without technology. 

Personally, I highly value the opportunity and choice integrated technology brings to a classroom. Building technology into the core of Inspiring Connections enables new opportunities for students to engage. It also provides teachers with more choices for ways to teach a lesson and affords students more ways to learn than we have ever been able to deliver before.

Education Technology That Is Almost Invisible 

Technology in education is at its best when it removes obstacles and provides a smooth and straightforward experience–enabling other ideas to come forward. 

I really like to think of the analogy of a smartphone. Smartphones did not introduce anything dramatically new, per se, they just put everything we needed in one easily accessible place. It is something that feels so natural and so invisible. We use it for everything every day, making our life easier in 1,000 ways. When we lose our phones, we say, “Wait, how did I survive without this before?”

I am not expecting technology in the classroom to be something explosive or to dramatically change the way that people teach and learn. The future of EdTech is something that makes the whole process exponentially easier—without getting in the way.

This brings us back to the human element of successfully implementing technology. We have to refine the technology to make it better. We need people to come to the table—there is so much need for communication, understanding, and diverse perspectives when it comes to EdTech. When the human element is guiding development and implementation every step of the way, removing barriers and expanding opportunity, that is when technology in the classroom can be so successful.