Learning New Things

I have to admit, this course has introduced me to many new technologies that will amplify my lessons when I become a teacher. I have found sources that offer online tutorials of new technologies and files for me to use in the classroom.

The best technology is definitely Google Documents. I had no idea about it before I took the course and now I use it for all my papers. I even wrote an academic math paper on it for my Advanced Calculus II class. It is quite amazing and I find it easier and more accessible than Microsoft Word. All the Greek symbols are conveniently placed so there is no searching for them, unlike in Microsoft Word where one needs to use codes to find the proper symbol.

And it is free! We all know how costly it is when buying a new computer to also have to purchase programs. Google Documents saves every file so one does not need to worry about losing them.

However, I found a flaw. When I finished my academic paper for math, I tried to print it but encountered a problem where Google Docs had to convert the file to a PDF before printing. It did, but all the symbols were converted into question marks and the format of the paper was changed.

So, maybe there are still bugs in the programming but I am sure it will be fixed soon. This is just a minor setback. Google Documents has many other tools and I am glad I got the chance to explore with it.

I will definitely find use of it in my classroom and ask my students to use it for projects and assignments.

Another technology I recently explored was in my Selected Topics for Modern Mathematics class where we used socrative.com. This program is specifically designed for a classroom where all students have iPhones or iTouches. The teacher is able to create assessments and have students work through the assessments individually through their device. It was interesting using it in class and it had benefits such as providing the teacher with accurate feedback as to each student’s response. The student can even communicate with the teacher and tell him that he does not understand the material well—this is important because many students are too shy to blurt out that they need help from the teacher. It is a subtle way of communicating.

But with the good, there comes a bad. I honestly have to criticize this use of technology for a simple assessment. We cannot guarantee every student has an up-to-date iPhone that they can use in class. Also, there was a tremendous amount to time that was wasted for everyone to log on and set up the program. Then we needed everyone to complete one question then move to the other, some students could not connect to the internet, we had to follow a certain format to inputting the correct answers, etc.

So it is important that we pick and choose the technology we bring into our classroom to support the lesson and methods of learning. We cannot put technology into the plan only because we are told we have to.