Erica+Holcombe

[[image:http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/296012_2358426279649_1220018037_2877334_2472463_n.jpg width="168" height="186"]]
My name is Erica Holcombe. I am from Easley, South Carolina. I graduated from Easley High School in 2008, and then I began attending Clemson University. I am currently at Clemson University studying secondary education. My goal is to become a high school or middle school math teacher.

What are your current beliefs concerning the use of technological aids in the teaching of mathematics?
Currently I believe that in the classroom technological aids are helpful when used correctly. I believe that some of the aids are misused by teachers, and the way they are being used is actually hurting student learning rather than supporting it. When they are used correctly, I believe that technological aids can help engage students in the lesson and make them more motivated to learn the information being presented to them.

How did your teachers use technological aids when you were learning mathematics?
When I was being taught mathematics, the only real use of technological aids were of calculators. One of my teachers had a smart board, but it was eventually only used as a high tech dry erase board.

==Please give me a brief summary of your experiences using technology – i.e. in what aspects have you used the computer and/or other technology devises? Be sure to include any technology you used in teaching experiences as well as personal experiences.== I use my computer on a daily basis for both educational and personal reasons. I am very good at working with my calculator. I have taken a technology in education class once and it exposed me to ways that technology could be used in the classroom, but many of the things shown to use were mostly useful in elementary classrooms. Last semester I was required to write a lesson plan that involved a smart board. That allowed me to become aware of how to use a smartboard.

media type="custom" key="10374594" [|Link To Vote]

What are the benefits and challanges for this technology?
The benefits for this technology are that you are able to recieve instant feedback from students. You are also able to see how the class is doing as a whole. You can tell how many people are getting examples correct or incorrect. If you wanted students to submit questions, then they might be more honest and willing to ask questions then if you asked the class to give you questions in front of everyone else. The challenges are that it is anonymous, so you are unable to give students one-on-one help since you do not know which students are needing the help. Also, you must have the technology available in class in order to use this.

I would use this technology in my future class, because I am able to assess how the entire class is doing.

Video Reflections:
[|Khan Academy: Linear Equations]

I believe that this would be useful for students because it allows students to pause, rewind, and review the content that the video is going over. I do not believe that I would use this in the classroom, but I would give students the link as a supplement to the days lesson.

A) Would you use Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 in your future classroom? If yes, how would you use it? If not, why not?
I believe that as long as I had access to a computer lab, that I would use Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 in my classroom. I believe that I would want to use it for mostly for graphing or as a tool to show students the steps that are used in solving equations. I think that the graphing function in this program is very user friendly and would be a useful tool for students. I also like how the program shows the steps that are taken when solving a problem. I think that this program would be a useful way to use technology in the classroom.

B)Would you recommend your students to use this software at home as a homework supporter? Why or why not?
No, I would not want students to use this as a homework supporter. I would not want to do this, because I think that students could just plug things in and get answers but not really understand how the program found those answers. If it was available as a homework supporter, then I would require students to explain how they found an answer and why that answer is correct. ===C) What kind of mathematical view(s) emerge(s) from the Microsoft Mathematics 4.0? Assume that you are a high school student and you use this software at home or during some of your mathematics classes with the guidance of your teacher. How would you view or perceive mathematics in the light of this software? Explain it.=== I think that I would see mathematics as an easily accessible tool that can be used more smoothly than if I had only learned paper and pencil methods. I would be able to find solutions much more quickly and I would have an additional support that could explain how answers are recieved.

=__Smart Board Math Tools:__= [|Ratios and Proportions Lesson Activity for Smart Board]

This lesson addresses the South Carolina Mathematics standard EA-3.6 which states: Classify a variation as either direct or inverse.

This activity has several example problems of using proportions to solve for variables. It also gives students examples and solutions and asks if the solutions given are true or false.

This is different than a traditional lesson, because instead of giving each student a worksheet and asking them to solve these questions on their own or in small groups, the entire class can have an active conversation about why is a solution is or is not correct. Students can show each other the different methods used to solve these problems by coming up to the smart board and writing their procedure down, then if another student writes a different procedure, the teacher is able to put them side by side and compare and contrast the different methods.

This is different than using Microsoft Mathematics because students are not recieving help from the computer. They must solve the problems on their own. Also, I do not know that Microsoft Mathematics can solve proportions.

One possible problem that might occur is that when students are trying to solve these problems on their own, they may begin to use incorrect methods for solving the proportions. If they do too many of these problems the same way then they may be confused or continue do solve the problems incorrectly when they are tested on the material or asked to solve similar equations at a later time.

The way that this could be helped with technology is that when you are using the smart board you can do the problems more as a class, so students have less of a chance on getting used to using a method that is incorrect the way that they could when they are working on a worksheet either by themselves or as a small group.