During my fall placement, I did not make much use of technology in the classroom. The most frequently used technology tools in my classroom were a document camera and projector. I taught almost all of my math lessons by writing notes on paper under the document camera and projecting it onto the whiteboard. I felt like using the document camera was an effective use of technology for several reasons. First of all, my classroom had the document camera positioned in such a way that I could be facing my students while going over lessons. This allowed me to make eye contact and project my voice toward students, which is a nice alternative to turning my back to them while writing on the whiteboard. Using the document camera instead of writing on the whiteboard also allowed me to save the notes I went over in each class so that I could easily give a copy of the notes to students who were absent. Finally, students were easily able to share and explain their work to the class by putting it under the document camera and projecting it on the whiteboard. Aside from the document camera and projector, there was very little technology used in my placement.
Part of the reason why I rarely used technology in the classroom was the lack of technology available to the students in my placement. There were no Chromebooks or laptops available for my students to use in the classroom. If I did want students to have computer access during class time, I would have needed to reserve a computer lab and wait for my students to logon to outdated, mismatched desktops. I feel like this is not an effective teaching strategy when class periods are only 50 minutes long, as too much of the period would be spent just getting students onto their computers.
In this class, I am hoping to learn more ways that I can implement technology into my math classroom. Technology can allow students to participate in guided exploration to discover mathematics on their own. It can also provide a way to share visual-learning tools with students to improve understanding. In addition to using technology in the classroom, I also hope to learn some ideas for how I can assign supplementary tasks for students to complete outside of the classroom that can make use of the technology that they have in their homes.
Image credit to Adam Freidin https://www.flickr.com/photos/-adam/4674856117/in/photolist-886RRx-54G3F9-7MFi3u-5Y8et-aWrnk-9eBxh-4jhjQ-9aKxBs-92nj2T-2XNVQ-Gea4J-4RJSUp-9WNA8B-9kY44t-bc1djK-66GAT5-djjTPy-7qcqsn-mehzo-do77gr-5PmwPt-djkci6-mehsi-5UTQB5-7YRqV8-4nLgbx-9Cv3HE-aYnHpF-5Y8aT-5Y8co-4kzEVP-zGRAz-fRYLeC-4BgAPn-bUf8df-5ndsQu-qwtr1j-4BYSwC-2pUEss-8qvWnw-ckGzJG-9xBJ67-ewpdD-rj9p3Y-jDZPJF-a9Rq2n-bxWuxa-ewxdfS-6Y1Rbx-ewu3v8
3 great goals for our course:
1. How technology can allow students to participate in guided exploration to discover mathematics on their own.
2. Provide a way to share visual-learning tools with students to improve understanding.
3. Ideas for how I can assign supplementary tasks for students to complete outside of the classroom that can make use of the technology that they have in their homes.
It sounds like you already have a really great use of technology for math in the classroom. Although it sounds outdated, document cameras are great, and its evident by your explanation of how you’ve been using it to take notes and share student work with the class. I also think in your subject that it probably helps students to actually see you writing out and solving a problem. I would say that’s another benefit to the document camera because you are actually providing a model to help them get a better understanding. I never thought of the idea to take notes under the camera and just use copies of them for students absent for the lesson. I might start using that too!
I can understand the problem with outdated technology in schools for student use. Even though my school has chrome books available, websites continue to require updated software and such so that when you do find a useful tool, students can’t view the page because the software is out of date. It seems to be hard for schools to keep available devices up to date for students to actually use.
Frankly, I’m really jealous of you, Eli, that your material can be taught in a dynamic way and still on a DocCam. Mine is turned off on the podium of my classroom almost all the time except on days that essays are turned back.
That being said, we should talk about classroom management strategies while using technology that demands us, as teachers, to be more stationary for better instruction. What kind of temperament, attitude, and methodology coincides with what potential EdTech hardware or software, you know?