Interactivity 3: Generating Technology Inventory for Mathematics

This group assignment was different than any other I've ever done for a class at Montclair State University thus far. Although I did see 3 of my 4 group members in classes we share, this assignment was completed using only online communication. Like most group assignments, it required for someone to take initiative and start planning. I decided to not wait and sent out a mass e-mail to my group members, explaining what I thought needed to be done and by when, so that everyone was on the same page. After most of the group members inputted their technologies, I came up with the idea of color-coding the different categories, and lastly, organized them by grouping the colors together. We communicated via e-mail about any questions or concerns we had about the assignment, and kept each other in the loop on almost a daily basis on changes we made to the spreadsheet.

While this assignment seemed to have gone pretty smoothly, its efficiency had a lot to do with the fact that all of my group members held their own and completed their portion of the assignment by the deadline. We agreed to set the deadline to Monday night, so that all of us had enough time to write our Blogger entry before the Wednesday deadline.

I also really liked that we could view when changes to the document were made, and by which of the group member(s). It created a sense of accountability for each and every group member, wiping out any opportunities for any of the group members to “coast” their way through the project. All in all, this group assignment surprisingly turned out to be a very positive experience.

"Why Are We Learning This?"

Photo credit: http://www.glasbergen.com/math-cartoons/

It's a dreaded question asked by students in school, especially in a math classroom. "Miss (blank), why do we need to know this?" Student motivation is one of the most important aspects of a successful classroom, so we need to keep in mind that students want to learn things they don't only need to learn, but want to learn. By making the material relevant to their lives, we can better get through to them.


I thought this cartoon was a good way to sum up the fact that the way teachers sometimes believe students need to learn the material because they just need to learn it, no questions asked is very different from the way that students perceive school and learning.

Interactivity 2

"One machine can do the work of fifty men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man."

Picture credit:

Wade, Cindy. "Internet Puts Homeschoolers on Even Keel with Public School Monopoly." Web log post. Guerilla Homeschooling: Unschooling the Child and Deschooling Your Mind! Blogspot, Feb. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. <http://guerrillahomeschooling.blogspot.com/>.

Interactivity 1

Olivia's story is a very interesting one, but not surprising. By that, I mean that a lot of teens experiment with technology and learn to become very savvy with the various different pieces of equipment Olivia uses on a daily basis. What I found very interesting was that while Olivia did not have access to a computer in her apartment, she found ways to gain access to one, whether it was downstairs in her building, at school, at a friend's house, or even (my favorite of her resources) the Apple Store. Through research, she learned how to use HTML codes to enhance her and her Big Sister Dawn's MySpace pages. Because Olivia was so interested in learning about these topics, she went out of her way to get her hands on a computer, whatever measures it took. This is an important piece of information to know about Olivia as her teacher. The passion she has for technology can be incorporated into the classroom, and her interests can and should be incorporated into the curriculum as best as possible. By being passionate and working hard, Olivia achieved being one of the top 3 at her high school. Olivia was not the only one to have learned something from Dawn or her teachers, however. They all learned from each other, and that's the type of approach I plan on taking in my future teaching practice -- to collectively learn from one another as part of a community.


In the second video titled "Learning to Change, Changing to Learn," the students in the clip did not only use the computer to play video games. They also learned how to speak Chinese, to read/write/play music, develop a website, and to coordinate with others in a video game setting. I found it very intriguing that they went out of their way to teach themselves because they were interested in finding out more. Technology acts as a great tool for these students, helping them learn on their own about the things that really catch their interest. As one of the students at the end of the video put it, it's learning in a non-traditional way; they are given a certain amount of resources, and then need to decide which ones to turn to in order to reach their final goal.

The three technologies I chose as the most important, I chose because I use the most. My iPhone is almost always at my side, because there are endless applications on it to help me stay connected. I can send/receive e-mails almost instantly, similar to text messaging. I, like Olivia, keep my phone to stay connected with my family and friends, and use it often to check my Facebook account or Twitter. I have occasionally gotten updated on current events in the news via my Facebook/Twitter, because people have posted about them. While this can be a good thing, there's a downside to it as well: the information may not always be accurate. There is an upside to having my iPhone, however. If I ever don't understand what something means, I don't even have to be near a computer to do a quick Google search about it and inform myself in less than a minute. Although I've only had a smart phone for a few years, I can't imagine going back to a time when I did not have one.

My Macbook is also an essential piece of technology I find myself using every day. Being a college student, there's always a paper to write, research to do, etc. Having a laptop is good in that I can use it at home if I need to, but I can also bring it to class and take notes. Because I took a typing class in high school, I can type a lot faster than I can write, and so in classes that require a lot of writing, I avoid taking handwritten notes and instead type mine into a word document and print them afterwards. Also, with websites like YouTube, learning "How To" do anything at all has become much easier. If I ever forget how to do anything in math, I just have to type it into the search bar on the website and it's right there for me, with someone teaching me step my step. With YouTube, I use my Macbook similarly to the way students in the second video do, i.e. to reteach myself math concepts I'd forgotten.

Lastly, I chose the television. While I use TV mostly to relax and unwind after a long day of school and work, I can also watch the news on it, or even learn how to cook with Rachael Ray on the Food Network. Technology makes learning things faster if you are innovative enough. As future teachers, we need to be aware of this and familiarize ourselves with as many of these resources to maximize the learning of not only our students, but also our own learning.