Thursday, March 25, 2010

NCTM Article Number TWO

Hudnutt, B.S., & Panoff, R.M. (2002). Mathematically appropriate uses of technology. On-math, 1(2), 1-5

The main idea of this article is that technology should be used in classrooms because it can help students accomplish tasks they couldn't do otherwise. Students can use technology to see what happens to equations when algebra gets complicated and when it comes to the point that the arithmetic is hindering the teaching. When studying probability the computer can compute thousands of cases in seconds, when it would have taken a student hours to do the same thing. Students can explore lots of graphs and observe how changes in an equations change a graph very simply on a computer. The same effect may have been muddled in having to make so many graphs by hand had the students not had access to such technology. The author acknowledges that technology can have it's downsides with technical difficulties, but overall it is beneficial in the classroom.

I think technology is beneficial in the classroom. I think it allows students to explore complex ideas in a shorter amount of time. As was stated in the article, sometimes students forget what they are actually looking for and get lost in complex algebra. I am not saying that technology should replace arithmetic, but I definitely think it should be used in the classroom for exploration and for teaching the big ideas of what is going on at that point in the course. I have observed lots of classrooms with advanced technology for my 276 class and it is amazing the things we can do in with math and technology. The teacher can make perfect shapes that can show exactly what they were trying to show. This technology can also help with students who have IEP's and need the notes from class. The teacher can simply print off a copy of everything shown in class. All this and more are reasons I know technology is beneficial in today's classroom.

4 comments:

  1. You did a really good job on your summary. Technology is a really good learning tool, but you were right, you have to make sure there is a balance and that it doesn't completely replace arithmetic. If a student doesn't know how to do it by hand as well, technology will become a hindrance rather than a help meet.

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  2. I thought your description of the article was very well done. I was able to understand what the author's opinion was and also understood the importance of technology. I am curious whether the teacher gave some examples of classrooms that use more technology than others. If this was in the article, I believe this would have been a nice contribution to your paragraph. Very nice work though! I fully understood your description and felt your paragraphs were very well written.

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  3. I thought you did a really good job of being clear and professional. The structure was exactly what the professor was looking for. You were detailed and you stayed with the main points. However, I am not interested in reading this article. It doesn't sound interesting. Was it? good job.

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  4. You did a really nice job on your blog entry. You had clear topic sentences and kept focused throughout the paragraph. You also did a nice job supporting your stance in the last paragraph.

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