Kylie+Paige



= = =__About Me__= My name is Kylie Paige. I am currently a senior at Clemson University studying Secondary Math Education and Math Science. I am planning on graduating in May 2012 and am hoping to become a middle or high school math teacher in South Carolina.

Personal Questions
a.) I believe that technological aids can greatly increase your effectiveness as a teacher when they are used appropriately. Many teachers do not know how to use technology to their advantage, which makes the technology fairly useless in the learning process. Technology should only be used when it will benefit learning. I think that if the technology will help students to gain a greater understanding it should be used, but if the students could learn just as well without the technology it should not. It is important to use discretion when deciding what technology to include in your lessons because it can be a distraction in some cases. However, I think that teachers should seek out effective lessons which incorporate technology because these plans are usually more interactive and fun for students.

b.) When I was learning mathematics my teachers often used technology such as Powerpoint to display the class notes. They typed the notes onto slides, and then we were expected to copy them down and perform any example problems that were listed. We also used technology such as graphing calculators, which helped me to visualize the concepts we were covering. Some of my teachers in college have used SmartBoard when teaching math, and I really like this tool. It is very interactive and allows for students to get truly involved in the material. We did not have that kind of technology in my high school, but I thought it was very beneficial when I learned about it in college.

c.) During my time at Clemson I have become much better at using technology such as my computer and Microsoft programs such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint. I still struggle with some concepts, but my ability to use these programs has greatly improved in the last few years. I have also had the opportunity to work with SmartBoard programs. One of my classes helped to instruct us in creating effective lessons using the SmartBoard. I created a SmartBoard lesson for the class, and also taught a lesson to a class during my practicum last year using SmartBoard programs. I have had a lot of experience using Casio calculators. I am more comfortable with this type of calculator than with the TI brand. I have also used programs found on Google Apps, but I have very limited experience with them from another educational technology class, EdF315.

=__Online Assessment Tools__=

media type="custom" key="10374560"[|Math Poll]

//Reflection// a. What are the benefits and challenges for this technology? Benefits to this technology includes creating an easy way to check your students' understanding of a concept quickly. You can do this throughout class by preparing the polls ahead of time, which allows you to repeatedly assess your students' knowledge. It is also a great way to keep students active during class and make sure that everyone is paying attention. Challenges for this technology may be that some students may not have cell phones or there my be charges associated with texting. It may also go against school policy to use cell phones during school hours. You can only use the web poll if every student in class has access to a computer, which may also be an issue in some schools. Also, since students may not be held accountable for the results so some students may put the wrong answer on purpose to goof off.

b. Would you use this technology in your future class? I would consider using this technology or a similar polling technology in my future class if we had the necessary resources available. I think it is a great way to conduct informal assessments and make sure that students are paying attention and understanding the information.

=__Video Recording__= []# I watched the video under functions titled Composition.

I think that video can be a very effective tool in a math classroom because it has the ability to demonstrate skills to students using a medium that they enjoy. Students are always excited to watch a video in class, so in some cases an exciting video may capture their attention. However, the video that I watched was not attention-grabbing or interesting. While he effectively explained the topic of composition of functions in the video, I could have done the same thing in front of the class and been equally or more effective. Videos should be used if they increase interest or show a concept particularly well, such as using it to show students how to use a compass, which would be hard for a teacher to do in front of the whole class. A video can be expanded to show the entire class what is going on. Also, videos can be used to show students what they may have missed if they were absent from class. I could record my lessons to post online to students who may want to watch them at their own speed or who missed class. As with all technology I think teachers should use their judgement as to which videos should be used in the classroom. Videos should show students something that the teacher could not.

=__Math 4__=

a.) I think if I explored Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 deeper and gained an understanding of the program I would use it in my future classroom. It seems to have a lot of functions that would be beneficial to student learning. I would use it to extend students' learning of graphing and solving equations. After they have learned the steps to solving equations and graphing by hand, they can do more advanced problems using this program. Also, I would use it to teach complex numbers because it shows the steps for using them with operations, which is something many students struggle with.

b.) I would not recommend that my students use this at home as a homework supporter because if they ran into technical problems or did not have a computer this would not be fair. I want all of my students to have the same resources and so I would only use this program at school when everyone could use it. That way, everyone has access to the same resources and academic support. If students truly wanted to use it to check their homework at home that would be fine, but I would not recommend it.

c.) I would perceive math as interesting using this kind of software. Often technology intrigues students and draws them into the material. This program does a lot interesting things that may make students view math as something that is "cool." It would give them the opportunity to explore math concepts independently which would encourage ownership of their learning. I find that students often engage more in the lesson when it is on the computer or technology based, so students may find this method more applicable to what interests them.

=__Smart Board Math Tools__=
 * 1) Hyperlink:[| http://exchange.smarttech.com/curriculum/curriculum-list.html?curriculum=enuscurr129&grade=enuscurr129gr011&subject=enuscurr129gr011su010]
 * 2) Standard: MA.9-12 IA-2.1: Carry out a procedure to solve a system of linear inequalities algebraically.
 * 3) This lesson activity is a SMART response question set, which contains 11 questions about solving systems of linear equations and inequalities. There is a mixture of multiple choice and true/false questions. It appears that students can answer the questions and by clicking on a response, the program will tell you if that response is correct. It seems like a review activity for the unit on solving linear systems of equations and inequalities.
 * 4) This is different from a traditional lecture because it is interactive. Students can answer the questions and see if their responses are correct. Everyone in the class can participate in the quiz or students can do it individually, then the teacher can poll the class to find the most popular answers and click on those responses to see if they are correct. Teachers can go over misinterpretations throughout the quiz. This technology provides a lot of flexibility in how you want to use the quiz in your lesson.
 * 5) This activity is completely different from using Math 4.0 in your lesson. Math 4.0 allows you to create graphs and solve equations on individual computers or on one computer that is projected to the entire class. SMART board allows students to interact with the board and by using it, everyone can be a part of the process. Also, you could not create quizzes, like the one used in this activity, on Math 4.0. I think Math 4.0 is a great supplemental tool to instruction, but using SMART technologies is a better way to interact with the whole class at once
 * 6) A possible problem that could emerge from using this activity in class is that students could get by without doing anything because there it is hard to make sure that all students are actually answering the questions themselves instead of just copying them off of the slides. Students who do not know the material probably won't volunteer to participate, so it may be beneficial to call on random students. Another problem is that oftentimes there is a problem with the technology in classrooms, so you must be prepared with another activity in case the SMART board is not working that day. You must always have a back-up plan to keep students engaged.
 * 7) I would overcome the problem of student apathy by having each student answer the questions individually first. They would turn this paper in, and then we would go over the answers using the SMART board. That way each student is responsible for the material. I would have a review that we could do on the board without technology in case the SMART board was malfunctioning that day. This way the students would get the same review with or without the technology.

=__GeoGebra__=

> I think that dynamic mathematics environments are important to the success of students. They help to keep students engaged and to get them excited about mathematics. By allowing them to manipulate objects and explore using tools such as the slider on GeoGebra, students are learning math firsthand. They help students to discover math, instead of having a teacher tell them the "rules" of mathematics. > > I think that GeoGebra and GSP are very similar products and can both be helpful in the classroom. When using GSP, we performed the same assignments as we turned in on the first day of our GeoGebra assignment in class. I thought that these tasks were easier to do on GSP because it was easier to label parts and use dynamic text. For GeoGebra, you have to know how to code text in order to properly employ dynamic text. However, we did not learn how to do statistics or graphing on GSP so I do not even know if you can explore those topics on that program. Also, I like the slider tool, which I do no remember using on GSP. I think that both programs have great characteristics and are each better for different things. I think I would use GSP for some geometry content, but I would definitely use GeoGebra for statistics and graphing.
 * 1) What do you think about dynamic mathematics environment? Do they contribute to students' learning? How?
 * 1) Compare GeoGebra with GSP regarding your experiences! Be specific with examples, tools and design features both have!