Questions and Answers

One of the questions that I find myself repeatedly contemplating is the effectiveness of technology in the classroom, especially a math classroom. I am from a very small town with limited resources, and technology used by my math teachers was limited to graphing calculators. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult for me to see the relavance of incorporating technology into my future classroom. I feel that technology often complicates material that I learned simply through my high school textbook, class lecture, examples/discussion, and maybe the use of a calculator. However, I understand that students in high schools today are used to a much greater amount of technology in the classroom and their daily functions as a whole. Therefore I also understand how teaching the students with the resources that they use on a daily basis is important. I feel that for technology to be incorporated effectively into the classroom, rather than complicating the subject matter, teachers must be very well-educated on the technology themselves, they must plan for a certain amount of time for their students to become accustomed to the technology, and they must have very specifically defined learning targets regarding the intended outcome of using the technology. While teachers should be well prepared for all lessons and instruction, I feel that this preparation is particularly critical when the teachers are incorporating technology that is also new to them as the teacher. Further, I feel the best use for technology is in discovery and exploration. There are many lessons in which lecture and examples/discussion cannot be replaced. However, leading into such lessons with a technology component that allows the students to explore their own ideas and/or create personal conjectures regarding the material is an excellent way to bring technological advancements into the classroom.