Reducing Tech Time: How Can Teachers Balance Technology and Pen & Paper in the Maths Classroom?

Technology has changed what is possible in the maths classroom.

Students can receive instant feedback, teachers can see where misconceptions are forming, and learning can be adapted to what each student needs. But as technology becomes a bigger part of education, there is also a reasonable question many teachers are asking:

How much screen time is too much in the classroom?

Perhaps a more useful question, though, is why are students using technology in the first place?

Technology can be incredibly valuable when it gives students targeted practice, timely feedback and support as they build their understanding. Pen and paper can be equally valuable when students need to show their working, retrieve what they know and apply their skills independently.

Finding the right balance isn’t necessarily about setting a limit on screen time. It’s about being intentional.

What matters is that the tool matches the learning goal.

Should technology replace pen and paper in the maths classroom?

There are things technology can do particularly well in maths.

Digital tools can give students immediate feedback rather than leaving mistakes unaddressed. They can help teachers identify gaps in understanding, provide differentiated practice, and make it easier to understand how students are progressing across a class.

But that does not mean every part of a maths lesson needs to happen on a screen.

Writing out working, drawing diagrams, annotating a problem, or discussing an approach with a classmate all remain important parts of learning maths.

Rather than thinking of digital and print as competing approaches, it can be more useful to think about the different roles they play throughout the learning process.

Digital learning can help students build the knowledge and skills they need. Pen and paper can help them practise applying those skills independently.

Why is pen and paper still important when learning maths?

Maths is not just about arriving at the correct answer. The working matters too.

When students solve a problem by hand, they have space to show each step, test different approaches and work through mistakes. For teachers, that working can provide valuable insight into how a student is thinking, not just whether their final answer is right or wrong.

There are also times when students need to practise working independently without relying on prompts or support.

This becomes especially important when preparing for assessments and exams. If students will ultimately be expected to solve problems with pen and paper under timed conditions, they need opportunities to practise in those same conditions.

This is where the relationship between digital and paper becomes important. Students can use digital learning to build their understanding with feedback and support, before moving towards opportunities to retrieve and apply that knowledge more independently.

What does a healthy balance between screen time and paper look like in a maths lesson?

Finding balance does not necessarily mean dividing a lesson into equal amounts of screen time and paper time.

Instead, it means thinking about the learning intention behind each activity.

A teacher might introduce a concept through explicit instruction and worked examples on the board. Students might then use Mathspace for targeted practice, receiving immediate feedback as they build confidence with the skill.

Later, they might close their devices and complete problems independently on paper, showing their full working without hints or immediate feedback.

The technology has a clear purpose. So does the paper.

There isn’t necessarily a “right” amount of time students should spend using either one. What matters is that the tool matches the learning goal.

How can technology actually help teachers make offline learning more targeted?

One of the biggest advantages of digital learning is the immediate insights that teachers receive.

Rather than spending valuable lesson time trying to determine who has understood a concept and who needs more support, teachers can use learning data to make more informed decisions about what happens next and how to best support their students in class.

If a group of students is struggling with a particular concept, the teacher can provide targeted instruction to this group while the students who have confidently demonstrated that skill move on to independent practice in their workbooks.

If misconceptions are appearing across the class, the teacher can bring everyone back together and address them.

In this way, technology does not need to dominate lesson time to be useful. A relatively short period of purposeful digital practice can give teachers the information they need to make the rest of the lesson more targeted.

Why do students still need to practise maths without technology?

Students will not always have access to hints, immediate feedback or guidance when solving a maths problem.

During an assessment or exam, they need to recognise what a question is asking, retrieve the right knowledge and work through the problem independently. That independence needs to be practised too.

This is where reducing support at certain points in the learning process can complement the technology students use earlier on.

For example, Mathspace’s Test Mode removes access to hints and immediate feedback, allowing students to practise retrieving and applying what they know more independently. It provides a useful step between supported digital practice and the conditions students may eventually experience in an assessment.

[Read more about using Test Mode to prepare students for independent assessment →]

Students can build their knowledge through supported practice, test what they can do independently, and then apply those skills with pen and paper under assessment-like conditions.

The goal is not to remove technology simply for the sake of reducing screen time. It is to gradually build the independence students need when that support is no longer there.

Why should digital and print resources work together?

Finding the right balance becomes much easier when digital and print resources are designed to complement one another rather than operate as completely separate parts of the lesson.

Teachers shouldn’t necessarily have to choose between an online platform and a textbook. Having both gives them the flexibility to select the format that best matches what students need at that point in their learning.

This is the thinking behind combining Mathspace’s online learning platform with our print textbooks.

Students can use Mathspace for targeted digital practice, step-by-step support and immediate feedback as they develop their understanding. Teachers can then move students into textbook and workbook activities when the learning goal calls for independent working, written practice or less screen time.

Because the resources work alongside one another, moving away from a device doesn’t have to mean moving away from the learning sequence.

Instead, teachers have the flexibility to move between digital and print depending on what they are trying to achieve.

How can teachers find the right balance between technology and pen and paper?

Finding the right balance doesn’t mean deciding whether digital learning or pen and paper is better.

They serve different purposes.

Digital learning can help students build the knowledge and skills they need through targeted practice, feedback and support. Pen and paper can give them opportunities to retrieve, apply and demonstrate those skills more independently.

The key is being intentional about when each is used.

Sometimes the learning goal calls for immediate feedback and additional support. Sometimes it calls for independent practice and putting pen to paper. And sometimes students need to move between the two as their understanding develops.

A balanced classroom gives teachers the flexibility to make that decision based on what their students need and what they are trying to achieve.

Because ultimately, the goal is not more technology or less technology.

It is better learning.