Comparative Analysis of Digital Tools and Traditional Teaching Methods in Educational Effectiveness

TL;DR

This study compares digital tools and traditional teaching methods in elementary math education, finding digital tools significantly improve student test scores over traditional methods.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that digital tools enhance math learning outcomes more effectively than traditional worksheets in elementary education.

Findings

Digital tools increased math scores by 24.2%.

Traditional methods improved scores by 8.3%.

Results support integrating technology into teaching.

Abstract

In today's world technology comprises a large aspect of our lives so this study aimed to investigate if using computers and digital tools are better than traditional methods like using textbooks and worksheets for learning math. This study was done at Clarksburg Elementary School with help from MoCo Innovation which is a club that focuses on fostering an interest in technology among students. A major question that sparked our minds was: Are digital tools like learning on computers better than traditional methods for improving students math skills? We believe students who use digital tools might improve more in their math skills. To find out we worked with 30 students from the school. We split them into two groups and gave each group a pre assessment and post assessment. One group learned math using computers and were able to use interactive math websites such as Khan Academy while the other group used worksheets. After some learning we gave them a post assessment to see how much they had improved. Our results showed that the students who used the digital tools improved test scores averages by 24.2 percent from 70 percent to 87 percent while the students who used traditional methods only improved by 8.3 percent from 72 percent to 78 percent in math. These results show that digital tools are superior to regular teaching methods especially for subjects like math. But more research is required to see if digital tools are the main reason for this improvement. This research is definitely important to help schools decide if they want to use more technology.