Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Global Digital Citizenship Reflection
The group I had the pleasure of working with was assigned Global Awareness & Cultural Understanding. The technology introduced during presentation one was calculators. Neither global awareness nor cultural understanding lends itself for students to integrate calculators for advancement of knowledge. While numbers themselves are an international language, an appropriate setting is extremely limited to mathematics learning environment. Integrating calculators via web based technology through bell-work activities such as those outlined during my Prezi develop students exploration throughout, lend itself to topic one; Safe, Ethical, and Legal use of Technology.
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Mark, I agree with there not being too much risk with the use of calculators as technology in the classroom. One scenario might be using the calculators when not allowed or to assist in avoiding the actual learning of the theory being taught. As you pointed out in your presentation, the students must be educated on how and when to utilize the technology. Keep up the great work Mark, we are almost at the finish line!
ReplyDeleteMark,
ReplyDeleteCalculators are going to be around forever. There are those apps that are cool and effective, however, they do come and go. I doubt everyone in the world at one time will never need a calculator because they can do everything in their head. Hence, calculators will be around for ever. It's a great resource and unless it is integrated on another device such as cell phones, computers, etc., then like you said, there would be safety issues there. Good job Mark and good luck in student teaching!
Mark, given the facts that you were able to make a presentation on calculators both fun and engaging for adult students and that you didn't do your presentation on Wireless Calculators (which aren't too far in the distant future- I just checked Google), I think your reflection sufficiently assess integrating this technology into the classroom. Plus, since calculators are universal, I think that also supports teaching and preparing 21st Century students. Like Audrey said, "Calculators are going to be around forever."
ReplyDeleteSimilar to what Robb said, one learning environment that I can provide where using a calculator would be inappropriate is in the Resource Classroom where students' IEP goals are assessed and evaluated based upon demonstrating their mathematical knowledge- the theory or content. Beyond that, I can't think of any other learning environment where using them wouldn't be appropriate or of any cases where they would need to be modified.
Mark,
ReplyDeleteI loved that you discussed calculators. They are one tool that is allowed on certain aspects of the AZ Merit Test. I believe that this specific technology is one item that we should be educating students how to use in the classroom, and confirming that students understand the consequences of using “calculators” or apps that do the problem for you. I have seen far too many students who have use the apps that do all of the work for them and ace homework, but come test time have no clue how to solve the problem. I think you selected a wonderful technology and really appreciate you sharing!
Mark,
ReplyDeleteI had a love and hate relationship with calculators! As a student, I loved calculators because it helped reduce the amount of time spent on a problems, but as Taryn states, sometimes when I would get to a midterm of final test, I would completely blank out on the process of inputting the data in the calculator and generating my results.As a result, I was persistent on t=learning the how and why before I even touched a calculator. However, once i got to Calculus my senior year in high school, I realized that I needed that calculator, and bad! Pages worth of math could be at the tip of my fingers in seconds and it actually takes a lot to truly understand the "why" and the "how" behind the calculator. I agree that using calculators is mostly for math and high tech calculators that include features like graphing are better for higher grades. However, I think it is essential that students learn how to operate their calculators and understand the math that is going on in the background. As students get into statistics, with calculators, students can use the data to conduct research in science and analyze data in Social Studies about a population. I really enjoyed your presentation because I do not think that many educators view calculators as "technology" since they have been a part of our every day lives. However, as your presented it, it is actually an exquisite resource for students. Thanks for sharing!
Mark, I really enjoyed your presentation on calculators. They are such a huge tool in the world of mathematics. I agree with you on the fact that calculators would be inappropriate outside of math lessons. I however, think that they could possibly be inappropriate during the beginning stages of learning basic foundational math. I know that in schools, memorizing multiplication facts and mental math is strongly pushed. Using calculators during this time might be be inappropriate. However, I think that after students have mastered these foundational skills, calculators are a fantastic tool in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteIt is always good to play with the technology you will use in the classroom, such as computers. Although you mentioned that calculators do not lend themselves to most ups and downs that most technology does, there are calculators that are offered online. It is good to keep this in mind since, especially in high school, calculators may not be a resource every student can afford. Even if they cannot afford it, they can always go to the library and use the ones online. It is also good to keep in mind the fact that calculators, such as the TI-83, and their technology can become tricky so explicitly teaching this in the classroom may become necessary; I had a teacher who did this a lot in my high school math classes. Also, calculators can be used in science as well.
ReplyDeleteImpressive that you could make calculators such an interesting subject. I would agree that there aren't really any global citizenship worries involved with the integration of calculators in a classroom.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Stephanie on the aspect of integrating during the foundational stages. I do believe that we should encourage the student to be able to do all basic math by hand before we offer them the calculator as a tool. This way, we try and minimize student dependence on the technology.