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.