Examples of technology integration at a variety of grade levels
Examples of Technology Use
By integrating technology into the mathematics classrooms there will be many positive outcomes. Some include:
- Student engagement: Research suggests that technology used in classrooms can be especially advantageous to at-risk children. Means, Blando, Olson, Middleton, Morocco, Remz, and Zorfass (1993) note that technology can engage students in challenging, authentic learning:
"Teachers can draw on technology applications to simulate real-world environments and create actual environments for experimentation, so that students can carry out authentic tasks as real workers would, explore new terrains, meet people of different cultures, and use a variety of tools to gather information and solve problems." (p. 43)
- Multiple representations: Researchers have found that when technology makes abstract ideas tangible, teachers can more easily (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999; Roschelle et al., 2001;diSessa, 2001):
1. Build upon students' prior knowledge and skills; 2. Emphasize the connections among mathematical concepts; 3. Connect abstractions to real-world settings; 4. Address common misunderstandings; and 5. Introduce more advanced idea.
Lesson 4 Activities
In each video take note on: Students engagement in the lesson and focus on the role, or lack of, teacher facilitation.
- In this first clip you will observe the use of technology in a first grade classroom.
Watch: 1st Grade
- In this second clip you will observe a secondary classroom that uses a SMARTboard in a mathematics classroom.
Watch: SMARTboard
- In this third clip you will observe a secondary classroom that uses a variety of technologies including a document camera, SMARTboard, clickers, and an airliner.
Watch: Variety
- Assessment: In the discussion area please answer the three questions below:
1. What are some positive and negative outcomes that you see by integrating technology into the classroom? Try to think of some other than those listed above.
2. Seeing the examples above; have you developed some ideas on ways that you may integrate technology into your classroom?
RESOURCES:
Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., and Cocking, R.R. (Eds) (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Means, B., Blando, J., Olson, K., Middleton, T., Morocco, C. C., Remz, A. R., & Zorfass, J. (1993). Using technology to support education reform. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
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