Using digital tools to enhance active methodologies in higher education

Abstract

Who teaches increasingly seeks for new approaches that are more motivating and that will involve their students, principally in one of the most sensitive areas such as mathematics. The pedagogical practices with use of technology have proven to be a more engaging way for students, as they become more active in the process of learning. This study aimed to investigate, in two groups of higher education students, whether the use of some active methodologies, using technologies and in a synchronous environment, enhanced better learning results. One of the groups, students of a master's degree, worked with the dynamic geometry program GeoGebra and the other group, students of a degree, with Socrative. The analysis of the collected data allowed to make a qualitative and quantitative analysis. In the group of master's students, the study identified issues related to geometric constructions, namely the various types of triangles, in GeoGebra. For the construction in GeoGebra, students needed to deepen more basic concepts of geometry which led to a greater involvement in each construction, than using only "paper" and "pencil", reinforcing their learning. In the study with another group of students was observed that, on the one hand the Socrative helps the teacher to monitor and improve faster performance of the students and on the other hand, keeps students more involved with the arithmetic and geometric progressions content, as they get immediate feedback