Math and Technology

The podcasts assigned this week were narrated by Judy Chandler. She is a math teacher and a member of the Maine Learning Teaching Initiative. She is a firm advocate of technology in the classroom. She comes across a lot teachers that think technology is an added bonus feature and is not necessary. A lot of teachers teach the book for the material that is going to be on the test, and those that feel like math and technology just do not go together. Ms. Chandler feels that teaching straight from the book leads to disengagement or disconnection by the students, or that that they memorize the information and formulas just long enough to take the test but fail to actually learn the material.

Ms. Chandler's feeling is that technology can be integrated into the math curriculum and that it can be very successful. She says that use of technology to teach math in the classroom enhances student learning by engaging the student, manipulative experiences with immediate feedback opportunities, exploring math concepts, providing visual representatives, enhances communication and that it also offers alternative ways to demonstrate learning. She also feels that asking questions is another important thing that helps engage students.

The ideas presented by Ms. Chandler are great. They are wonderful ideas that would be very succesful in getting students more involved and would help them learn better. I think it takes a special type of teacher that loves technology for all of her initiatives to work. Some teachers are more old school and do not want to take the time or make the effort to learn how to use technology even though it might benefit their students.

As for me and the field I am going into, I am still unsure of all the ways that technology could be integrated. There will be a lot of technology used in equipment and so forth, but I am not sure how it will relate to the actual learning process of my students. I feel that it can be very beneficial if used in the right ways, and that is why I am still in college, trying to learn those right ways.