Technology Reflection

There were many different technologies that have been utilized throughout the semester in this math methods course. Some of the main technologies that were utilized were the use of smart boards, scientific calculators, sketchpad, WIKI, online blogging, and Google docs. My favorites of these were when we made use of the smart board, along with the sketchpad presentation in class.

I am currently novice teaching and it was nice to have a little bit of a background in the uses of smart boards. Unfortunately, the school I am attending only has one smart board available which is located in the computer room. To make use of the smart board, the teacher had to reserve computer lab time for his/her class. It was still nice to show my cooperating teacher some of the basic uses of the smart board for his future reference.

The sketchpad would not have been of much use for me while novicing since I was teaching 8th grade social studies. However, I found that the use of the sketchpad would be a good tool for students that need a visualization of something they are creating. This tool allows the students to make use of the term hands on minds on, because they not only are using their hands to manipulate the shapes and figures on the pad, but they are also thinking through it with their own ideas.

The calculator day was nice because it showed us in class exactly how much one could do with the calculator and it also familiarized us of what could be done. Students sometimes do not know how to work a scientific calculator, but if it is used correctly, it could prove to be a great learning tool for the students. Like all technologies used in the classroom, the teacher must be able to understand what it is the technologies is supposed to do and how to present it to the students.

Google docs were something that I did not really enjoy too much throughout this class, but without them I would not have made it through the course. There was so much group work going on that it was tough for us all too meet every single time we had to complete an assignment or project. Instead of meeting in person we would create a Google doc where one could add their thoughts and ideas to the page and it would save it so everyone else would be able to see the work that was added. It was really nice to have all of the data compiled in one master document so when we were ready to convert it back to a word document all you had to do was cut and paste. It was sometimes frustrating though because the formatting on the Google docs would be different than that of Microsoft Word and you had to spend extra time re-formatting, but in the end, the Google documents proved to be more beneficial than I though they would be mainly because of the nature of the course workload that incorporated lots of group work.

Lastly, but not least, the blogging site has been very helpful for me throughout this course. I never thought I would see the day that I turned into a blogger, but at least I can say that it was for educational purposes. The blogging site was helpful because it gave us the opportunity to look at every student’s perspective and thoughts about the material we were designated to blog about. I was able to read information posted not only by those students who are in my class section, but also the 10:30 A.M. section. The information was helpful because I received lots of insight about the class projects and assignments from my classmates and didn’t have to go mainly off of what I thought and felt about the assignments.