Whight’s view on technology, maths and education.

Upon reading some posts in the global blogosphere (is that a word) I came across a rather thought provoking piece that reminded me of incidents on my practicum. The post concludes on the need to thoughtfully implement technology so that it is utilised as a purposeful tool.

In my practical experience, too often computers were used as the dreaded “teaching machine”, with little difference in such a lesson to completing textbook activities. Indeed some just involved completing an online quiz. Is there a purpose to this?

Rather, we must have a purpose and try and let our students program the computer rather than the computer program the student. Often when utilising Excel in mathematics the students on prac just had to copy code and answer some fairly straightforward questions. Instead, as research points out, why not have a purpose of using Excel, or other spreadsheet programs, to improve the students understanding of the relationships or concepts involved. If we get the students to program their knowledge into excel by converting known mathematical properties into code or formula, they need to utilise higher order thinking.

Don’t just give them a worksheet, with the formula given as below. Let them think creatively for themselves to improve their own understanding.

Overall we need to think seriously about our implementation of technology. Don’t just mimic textbook activities, engage our students and extend them beyond routine ideas.

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