Computer History for Michele LaSelva

Please bear with me since I had to dig way back for this one. My first computer was an Apple IIe. It was in the eighties and I was teaching part time. This computer was the rage among educators and of course I had to have one. So my husband bought one for me and paid close to $2,000 for it (do you believe that!). It was enclosed in a plastic case, had an integrated keyboard, had two 5.25” disk drives, and 64K RAM. ProDos was the operating system. My husband also bought an ImageWriter printer to go with it. This was a dot matrix printer and I remember that it was slow. My kids played educational games on the computer and I used Apple Works which was a combination word processor, spreadsheet, and database program. Though at the time I knew very little about computers, I did know that a word processor was the way to go---especially for a teacher. To be able to create documents and edit them and save them was too cool. I do remember playing with the spreadsheet but I really didn’t get into spreadsheets until my next computer which included Microsoft Works. I also remember using my Apple to learn Turtle Logos (for all you youngsters, this was a computer language). My Apple IIe was a great introduction to computers and the building block for what was to come.

Trudging FORWARD!

The second course of my master’s program is complete. This entire course served to enlighten me in several areas. I have come to realize that my place of employment is extremely behind as far as teaching with technology is concerned. Of course I teach in a college setting and that fact alone creates limits. The Math Department uses state developed Course Outcome Summaries as its teaching guide vs state standards that K – 12 schools use. Most of the outcomes deal with performing a task such as “Student will solve a linear equation in one variable”. As faculty members, we have discussed how once a unit exam is complete, everything the student learned for the test has escaped from their brain. Many students fail to make connections between the various chapters of the text. Many students fail to see why certain math tools are used to solve different word or application problems. Math would make so much more sense and become more enjoyable if students saw and participated in math in action. There are several ways to do this, one of them being incorporating technology into our math curriculum. Granted, we don’t have a whole lot to choose from, but we do have two computer labs with internet connection. Thanks to this course, I realize that there are so many tools and sites out there and many of them are free—it’s a start. I also was very enlightened by the information contained in the text. As the book pointed out, the future of education is changing and technology will play a big role in this change. I also believe that in order for people to succeed in the near future economy, they must be extremely technologically savvy. So as teachers, we must prepare our students. Critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity must play a larger role in our math curriculum. Students must bone up on their writing, spelling, and grammar skills. They must know how to create and deliver presentations. And again, technology can be one of the tools used to accomplish these tasks. As Louis pointed out, the training wheels are getting ready to come off. We’ve discovered, we’ve learned, and now it’s time to apply.

Where To Start?!?

I am almost finished with the second course of my masters program. The question is: “What have I learned this week that I can apply to my teaching?” In a very short time I have been inundated with a tremendous amount of information—many wonderful free online tools, an in-depth book addressing technology standards and a guide to incorporating these standards into education, numerous web sites, data bases, lesson plans, new technology,……………..
What I have learned this week is that I must now thoroughly research all of this new information. I must start picking and choosing. I must examine my curriculum, my math department, the Liberal Arts division, and my teaching institution and then realistically decide what is possible in terms of incorporating technology into my teachings and what isn’t. I must find at least one other math teacher who has an open mind to share ideas with, to brainstorm with, to test plans and projects with, and to help me sell this new way of teaching to the other math teachers. My math department will get no new technology or software unless the teachers are sold on the importance of these tools. I must start small and keep building. And I must continue to learn.
Through hard work, careful planning, time, trial, error, and patience, I see only positive impacts on our students.

Factoring Can be Exciting!

I watched the video titled “Modeling Quadratic Data” from the InTime site.
Donna Schmitt, 9th grade math teacher at Dubuque High School, made the lesson on factoring quadratic equations come alive. This is a concept that I regularly teach in my own algebra course and after watching this video, I now have many new ideas for presenting this topic. She started with a review of what the students have previously learned about different ways of writing quadratic equations. She then outlined what they were going to be doing and what the final outcome would be. Students worked in groups with a worksheet and using previously learned facts and looking for patterns, discovered how to factor quadratic equations. They discussed what they learned and then carried the knowledge to graphing calculators. Using the graphs, they found the x-intercepts and discovered the relationship between the intercepts on the graph and the factors of the quadratic. As they used the calculators, they learned about different functions on the calculator. Factoring and graphs were then applied to a real-life problem concerning maximum area of a fenced in yard given so many feet of fencing. Problem solving techniques were used to come up with the solution. The teacher ended the lesson by having the students take turns jumping up while a machine measured their jumps. Using quadratics and graphs, they came up with the highest jumper and how the rest of the class compared to him on the graph. This lesson incorporated collaboration, active involvement, patterns, connections, and discovery, probing questions by Mrs. Schmitt, constant feedback by Mrs. Schmitt, critical thinking, decision making, real life applications, and technology. WOW! The interesting thing was that when the video first started, the students were sitting with that bored look. By the time the video ended, they were all involved, excited, and learning. They saw that there is a use for quadratic equations and hopefully will discover parabolas all around themselves!