Personal Reflection: Interactivity #3

This collaborative project was a great exploration exercise of the many technologies available to teachers. I started my search and was overwhelmed at the amount of information I was able to find that kept pouring out at me one after the other. The group was able to generate an authentic list of many beneficial technologies but it is nowhere near complete as there are thousands left out there that we need to bring notice to. It was also great for us to collaborate because we are able to put our own view on what we thought was most beneficial to the classroom and our students.

More than just finding links and fancy names, I was able to understand how accessible and easy to use these technologies are. As a teacher, we are provided with step by step instructions and lesson plans to support our teaching along with additional resources so the students can explore on their own. There are fun games and software students can interact with and learn while building up their curiosity through modeling—a change from continuous direct instruction. I can see how some of these technologies can be used in the CURR 314 class as we are discussing different types of assessments and what will constitute a balanced assessment. For example, many of the virtual activities such as using software to create and learn can be used as a formative assessment.

Seeing all the great technologies available and easily accessible to teachers, I will definitely save the spreadsheet and refer back to it when I am ready to teach. As I learned from my Read 411 professor, teaching must be cognizant with the changing nature of technology along with other factors of the environment. This way, both teachers and students will continue to be effective.

Are Students Mastering Skill or Technology?

Technology in a math classroom can be fun, innovative, and helpful to students because it allows them to merge their creativity with topics that are usually categorized as “tricky” or “difficult” and requires a lot of skill. So we provide this technology hoping it will bridge the gap for the majority of students. Sometimes we hope it will help them visualize and analyze problems better than direct instruction and teacher modeling. The students along with the teacher are learners when it comes to the new technology where they are both learning to master it at the same time and depending on the knowledge of the teacher with the technology, learning how to use is can become an easy routine or a struggle. Either way, there are a lot of benefits. But here is an interesting situation I found while conducting some research.

Quote from a paper by E. Paul Goldenberg:

“But empowerment requires control. If students were not

masters of the old tools, it is no favor to give them new

tools that they also do not master. Sometimes students

do know enough algebra to solve a problem but still fail

to use that knowledge because they lack the fluency or

    experience to use it effectively and confidently in problem 

    solving. The same applies to electronic tools. Learning just 

 enough about a spreadsheet to solve a particular class of 

        problems and then moving on or learning a few construction 

         tools on geometry software to illustrate a particular collection 

  of geometrical facts, and then moving on leaves students 

   limping users of the tools, not experts who could whip out 

        the tool as needed to help reason about and solve a problem.”

I find this rather interesting and it might just hold a lot of truth. Yes, the child is getting a different perspective on how to problem solve or visualize shapes, but does mastering the technology mean he is mastering the material?

I guess it is another two-sided argument that can easily go either way. This is just something to consider when in a classroom and debating whether you, as a teacher, should spend 3 days teaching students how to use technology and mastering it instead of giving supplemental modeling and formalized assessments to teach them from the textbook.

If you want to read the whole article, it is here:

http://www2.edc.org/mcc/pdf/iss_tech.pdf

Free Online Lectures

This is a great website where lecturers are able to post course videos for anyone to view! These professors are from Harvard, MIT, Yale, and many more big names. This is another great example of communication technology that is very helpful to High School and University students. It is always nice to have additional resources when going through these difficult courses. Being a Math major, I searched through the math section where most topics are listed with at least ten videos per topic. The videos are separated by topic so it is easy for a student to find a video relating to the topic he seeks. Searching Google or YouTube are also helpful but I find it to be time consuming since everything on the internet is not always directed towards education. Often I find myself browsing through over 10 websites and still not being able to get the extra help I want.

This is convenient to provide students in a higher level classroom because supplemental thoughts and notes are always helpful. Everything is made easily accessible so it only takes a few steps to find what you want.

But here is the link. 

http://academicearth.org/subjects/

Check it out whenever you are in need of additional help in whatever topic you want. 

Interactivity # 2

"Competition+Struggle=Innovation

The cause for America's jolt in math education"

Scribner, Campbell. "Sputnik Mania! ." History and America's Schools. Wordpress, 06 02 2011. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. 

http://misterscribner.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/sputnik-mania/ 

The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions

I just found this and it is pretty interesting. Take a moment and digest this. (You might need to go to the link to see it better).

It shows how distracting technology is and at the top of the pyramid, is "Device Failure" while "Any kind of actual work" lays at the bottom of the pyramid. It is evident, at least in my life, that if any physical technology I own breaks down, I devote all my time to fixing it and this problem becomes most important to me. Now thinking about my problems with technology made me reflect on the numerous classrooms I have entered and the teacher had to postpone or delay a lesson because he could not get the technology to work correctly. Introducing so much technology in the classroom is bound to cause more delays if people misuse them or it just simply does not work. 

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-hierarchy-of-digital-distractions/