I believe that I'm the only person in the course without any classroom teaching experience, either past or present. While I do currently work in the basic skills lab at Montclair, that's really more of a tutoring gig than teaching. I do, however, have some knowledge of the technology implemented in math classrooms -- I worked for five years as an IT technician in the Linden school district. Many of the programs and websites brought up in the first class, such as Geometer Sketchpad and Study Island, are staples of Linden's curriculum.
I will admit that my opinion towards technology in the math classroom is that of reservation. My high school calculus teacher, who is my inspiration for wanting to teach, taught his lesson plan straight out of handwritten notebooks. The most technology we ever used in the class was a graphing calculator. He was universally praised by my classmates as being a wonderful teacher and presenting the material more clearly than anyone we'd had previously or we've had since. If a standard lecture methodology (when planned properly) can accomplish its task so easily, I see no need to add extraneous technologies to the mix.
And, admittedly, my opinion of technologies as "extraneous" comes from my experiences with them. From what I saw in my home district, a technology-based curriculum was rarely implemented because of the opinion that it would a better job than the lecture-based alternative. Mostly, adding technology was done for the sake of having it.
I'm hoping that this course breaks me of my aspersions towards technology in the math classroom. Seeing technology used effectively in a math curriculum could go a long way towards helping me determine how much I would use advanced technologies in an actual lesson plan.
Until then, though, I intend to continue to swear by the notebook and the occasional TI-83+.
I NEVER had a mathematics class that was technology inclusive (except for one undergrad methods class called Teaching Mathematics with Technology) and yet I developed a love of mathematics and I have fond memories of many of my teachers.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the barriers to new teaching approaches is the idea that new approaches imply that the old ones were wrong or bad. There are some teachers that motivate, inspire, and foster a love of mathematics almost exclusively through lecture. They are certainly not bad or inferior teachers. However, there are also teachers that achieve similar results through an entirely different classroom style.
I think part of professional development is becoming a well rounded teacher and becoming fluent in all the talents and tools available.
It is also important to recognize that technology is not just a teaching tool, it is a curriculum component. That is to say that decisions about what mathematics should and can be covered are influenced by what technology can do.
I have to agree with you about feeling that the use of technology could get in the way if not implemented in a smart way. I might be the oldest one in our class. I got my BS in Math and Stats back in 1997 when the height of technology in the classroom was researching something on the Internet (and that was a painful experience back then). I will have to admit that I don't even know how to use a graphing calculator. And yet, or maybe because I didn't rely on a calculator or some other technology, I was good in math. And you know what, my Dad is even better, because when he went to school the calculators and computers weren't even invented yet. Having said that, I have to admit that I love the Black Board which we are using for this class...
ReplyDelete