Reading Response for Week 8
http://caret.iste.org/index.cfm?StudyID=337&fuseaction=studySummary
The article titled “Does it Compute? The Relationship Between Educational Technology and Student Achievement in Mathematics” was a wonderful article. It has great insight as to how students are achieving much higher Math Standards since the use of technology has been introduced into the classroom. The results showed that higher mathematics scores were related to adequate access to up-to-date computer technology, allowing for high-order concepts such as learning games and real-world computer simulations and applications, and a teacher that has been properly trained in technology. Whether you were rich, poor, white, black, rural or urban, all students have the same chance to learn when given the same opportunity. The article posed four questions that helped sum up the findings in this research study.
1. How can technology influence student academic performance?
2. How can technology improve student motivation, attitude, and interest in learning?
3. How can technology help to prepare students for the workforce?
4. What strategies result in effective instructional application of technology?
Each question gave many researched answers backed up by evidence that I can summarize like this. Technology can improve student performance when it has been directly linked to the curriculum objectives, allows for student collaboration, can adjust for students’ needs and prior knowledge, understanding, should be integrated into daily class routines, and provides opportunities for students to design and implement hands-on projects that extend the curriculum content.
Student motivation, attitude, and interest in learning can be improved by students using computer applications that: adjust problems and tasks to maximize students’ experience of success, produce, demonstrate, and share their work with peers, teachers, and parents; and use challenging, game-like programs, and technology applications designed to develop basic skills and knowledge.
Technology helps prepare students for the workforce when they learn to use and apply applications used in the world of work, such as word processors, spreadsheets, computer-aided drawing, website development programs, and the Internet. If they learn to use these types of programs, they will have an easier time finding a job because of their skills, not what grade they completed in school.
I had some difficultly with the last question because, while reading this article, my personal question in mind was, “How can you use technology in your classroom if you do not have the support of available hardware, networks, and a working server?” That is exactly how they answered question 4. They say that to have effective technology applications involves a process for continuously incorporating research findings into instructional strategies and curriculum planned, but to incorporate new research, you need to have a system that can handle the updated materials.
My next question would be….."How do you get around the lack of resources for the use of technology and still incorporate the new research findings into your classroom?"
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/math/ma200.htm
I found this article to be fairly informative and enlightening The issue poised in this article was the fact that there is so much valuable and motivating mathematic resources for K-12 educators and students, but how difficult it was to locate, access, and meaningfully integrate these materials into the classroom instruction. What the author did was to research and provide a critical and informative summary of Internet sites and descriptive contents; presented some educator insights on providing Internet resources for students; commented on the quality of Internet sites and lesson plans; and discussed how many educators were not buying into the use of Internet-based mathematics materials.
It has been about 11 years since this article was written, and much has developed and been improved upon regarding teacher education, and the location, accessibility, knowledge and the integration of Internet-Based Mathematics into classroom instruction. A good current example is the ASU West Graduate Technology Program where many students, including myself, are learning and being trained in the use of technology, and accessing current Internet-sites, for application in the classroom. I can now envision how much easier it is today, then it was in 1995, but at the same time it is still challenging to integrate Internet-based mathematics into lesson plans since the knowledge and number of Internet-sites has increased dramatically. As I just completed the assignment for “25 Internet Resources for Mathematics and Science”, I realized how demanding and challenging it was to prepare it; but, at the same time I now have a valuable source of resources that I can quickly access, update, and use in my classroom. Technology can play a critical role in the classroom if used effectively, and over the years more support has developed from both educators and students.
The article titled “Does it Compute? The Relationship Between Educational Technology and Student Achievement in Mathematics” was a wonderful article. It has great insight as to how students are achieving much higher Math Standards since the use of technology has been introduced into the classroom. The results showed that higher mathematics scores were related to adequate access to up-to-date computer technology, allowing for high-order concepts such as learning games and real-world computer simulations and applications, and a teacher that has been properly trained in technology. Whether you were rich, poor, white, black, rural or urban, all students have the same chance to learn when given the same opportunity. The article posed four questions that helped sum up the findings in this research study.
1. How can technology influence student academic performance?
2. How can technology improve student motivation, attitude, and interest in learning?
3. How can technology help to prepare students for the workforce?
4. What strategies result in effective instructional application of technology?
Each question gave many researched answers backed up by evidence that I can summarize like this. Technology can improve student performance when it has been directly linked to the curriculum objectives, allows for student collaboration, can adjust for students’ needs and prior knowledge, understanding, should be integrated into daily class routines, and provides opportunities for students to design and implement hands-on projects that extend the curriculum content.
Student motivation, attitude, and interest in learning can be improved by students using computer applications that: adjust problems and tasks to maximize students’ experience of success, produce, demonstrate, and share their work with peers, teachers, and parents; and use challenging, game-like programs, and technology applications designed to develop basic skills and knowledge.
Technology helps prepare students for the workforce when they learn to use and apply applications used in the world of work, such as word processors, spreadsheets, computer-aided drawing, website development programs, and the Internet. If they learn to use these types of programs, they will have an easier time finding a job because of their skills, not what grade they completed in school.
I had some difficultly with the last question because, while reading this article, my personal question in mind was, “How can you use technology in your classroom if you do not have the support of available hardware, networks, and a working server?” That is exactly how they answered question 4. They say that to have effective technology applications involves a process for continuously incorporating research findings into instructional strategies and curriculum planned, but to incorporate new research, you need to have a system that can handle the updated materials.
My next question would be….."How do you get around the lack of resources for the use of technology and still incorporate the new research findings into your classroom?"
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/math/ma200.htm
I found this article to be fairly informative and enlightening The issue poised in this article was the fact that there is so much valuable and motivating mathematic resources for K-12 educators and students, but how difficult it was to locate, access, and meaningfully integrate these materials into the classroom instruction. What the author did was to research and provide a critical and informative summary of Internet sites and descriptive contents; presented some educator insights on providing Internet resources for students; commented on the quality of Internet sites and lesson plans; and discussed how many educators were not buying into the use of Internet-based mathematics materials.
It has been about 11 years since this article was written, and much has developed and been improved upon regarding teacher education, and the location, accessibility, knowledge and the integration of Internet-Based Mathematics into classroom instruction. A good current example is the ASU West Graduate Technology Program where many students, including myself, are learning and being trained in the use of technology, and accessing current Internet-sites, for application in the classroom. I can now envision how much easier it is today, then it was in 1995, but at the same time it is still challenging to integrate Internet-based mathematics into lesson plans since the knowledge and number of Internet-sites has increased dramatically. As I just completed the assignment for “25 Internet Resources for Mathematics and Science”, I realized how demanding and challenging it was to prepare it; but, at the same time I now have a valuable source of resources that I can quickly access, update, and use in my classroom. Technology can play a critical role in the classroom if used effectively, and over the years more support has developed from both educators and students.
posted by Cheryl Myers @ 8:18 PM
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