Teacher vs. Technology

I do not believe that mathematics teachers are in danger of being replaced by technology. The subject of mathematics is too complex to be watched, or listened to. Having a proctor sit-in on a recorded math lesson will not benefit the students as well as having accessibility to actual math teacher. Student questions may arise that a recording or proctor cannot answer. What if a student has trouble entering a function on his/her calculator? Having recordings played in place of teachers may lose the students who are not visual or audio learners. As teachers, we need to teach all learners, not just visual learners. In high school we had a distance learning program, where students had class over a television and our school provided a proctor. The students disliked the idea and had a negative learning experience.

Let’s assume video recordings do take the place of mathematics teachers. If technology takes the place of mathematics teachers, it should take the place of other content areas as well. Parents may argue their children do not need to attend school because they will have the recordings of lessons their children can watch at home. Without students attending classes, the idea of school becomes ineffective. If, by chance, technology does start to take over, I would stay up to date with new material and ideas that recordings cannot compete with to keep my job.

I agree technology works wonderfully alongside a teacher, but not well enough to replace a teacher.

GSP to the Rescue

Although I do not remember an ‘A Ha’ moment in my mathematics experience in high school, I do recall one in geometry my freshman year of college. Our first journal assignment was to find five centers of triangles. With the help of Geometer Sketch Pad (GSP) this was possible. Typically when I think center a circle comes to mind. Trying to find one center of a triangle, to me, is doable – the centroid – the concurrence of the vertex and the midpoint of all three segments. Trying to find at least one other center by pencil and paper is not doable for me. I thought all centers would connect at the same point, all the time. Using GSP I was able to create altitudes, perpendiculars, angle bisectors and intersecting bisectors with two exterior angle bisectors to form four other centers of a triangle. Without the use of this program I do not think I would have been able to complete the assignment.

Having technology assist my understanding of triangular centers will contribute to various teaching approaches in my future mathematics career. Bringing up the theory of multiple intelligences is a perfect example. Being able to use technology, in my case GSP, serves as a visual image for mathematical concepts and will help visual learners (as well as other learners). When I saw how the altitudes connected and intersected, I could see the triangle’s orthocenter. There are many benefits of using technology: faster computations, being able to manipulate graphs, solve equations, find derivatives, the list goes on. Even though middle schools and high schools may not have GSP, I plan to incorporate other forms of technologies, such as graphing calculators. These calculators graphically show functions which help students visualize the math, similar to GSP. My hope, as a teacher, is to provide my students with the opportunity to make connections and ‘see’ the math, whether it be on a computer program or a graphing calculator or another form of technology.

"I'm a math teacher so why do I need to know how to blog?"

Keeping up with the rapid advances in technology can be challenging. Incorporating these advances in the classroom has benefits for both students and teachers: communication, accessibility, information and availability. Anticipating a career as a mathematics teacher I can see possible opportunities using a Weblog.

Blogging is a new technological idea which has many benefits for teachers. I believe in integration among the grade curriculum, and blogging could play a key role. Different content area teachers working together to create an interdisciplinary project and post it on their blog site could fulfill many district and state requirements. Research, writing, discussing and presenting a topic in which all subjects are included and individual information is posted, is an excellent way to integrate subjects. If students encountered questions specific to a specialized teacher, they could receive feedback and clarification from the specific teacher. After posting the question and answer, other students with the same question could access this information.

Blogging is an excellent opportunity for students and teachers to provide responses to assignments, pose questions and share ideas. In mathematics, students have the accessibility of the teacher for answers to questions on homework. Classmates being able to communicate with each other over homework problems, for example a proof, is a great way of open discussions in which a teacher can give guidance if he/she feels they are going in a wrong direction.

Posting higher-level math problems or focus problems (to introduce a topic for the following week) can be a great weekend assignment. Discussions online and/or in class the following Monday would provide background knowledge and thoughts for the upcoming week. In class on Mondays, we find many students who have not touched their notebooks since the class on the previous Friday. Having weekend assignments or discussion questions on Weblogs can provide an assurance students utilize their resources.

In order to provide these opportunities and ideas for students, teachers need to know how to use Weblogs. Providing as many opportunities for our students as we can, is a major goal for teachers. Blogging is one of these opportunities.