If we consider a high school teacher who instructs five classes per day, averaging thirty students per class, over the course of a 185-day school year, that’s 27,750 student contact hours.
If the teacher asks three questions, or answers three questions, or gives three instructions to individuals students - aside from the questions, answers, and instructions given to the entire class at once - that’d be 83,250 spoken interactions.
Let’s imagine that homework is assigned on 150 of the 185 instructional days. This would yield 22,500 pieces of work. Before the advent of the paperless work, that meant 22,500 pieces of paper.
Even with paperless assignments, it’s still 22,500 data points, which usually translates into keystrokes, data entry, and spreadsheets.
Beyond homework, there are in-class assignments and worksheets, quizzes, tests, and other forms of practice and assessment. If a teacher gives two small quizzes per week, assuming a 36-week academic year, that’s 10,800 quizzes to be graded, and 10,800 scores for keystrokes and data entry.
The number of data points is quite large, both relatively and absolutely. These quantities point to a need to create and maintain efficient data systems, and to free a teacher’s time up for grading assignments and record-keeping.
Teachers have an significant responsibility for data management, and require time to do it well. This fact needs to be weighed in considerations of how much time teachers are required to spend on other duties.
