Mathematics

Mathematics

Students Name

Institution of Affiliation

MAE 4152

Date

In the past, classes used to be taught using heavy textbooks, pencils, notebooks and chalkboards. However, over the past few years, the trend has slowly been changing, and the schools have begun to adopt a technological change to have effective learning in their classes. New teaching tools such as the whiteboards, projectors and the computer educational games have been introduced into the learning world. The new technological advancements do not only assist the students in learning better but as well facilitates the students to adapt to the fast-paced technological environment to which they are growing up in it.

There are so many uses that can be generated from the computer that include: word processing, internet, educational games and as well can be used for musical development. In the setting to which every student is entitled to a computer or to which two or three happen to be sharing a computer, the students are more actively engaged and prompted to think, than in a lecture setting where they may happen to tune the lecturer out. Lecture attendance is so boring that majority of the students find themselves being out of class as they are not actively engaged during the learning process.

In a computer set class, the role of the teacher changes such that the teacher is no longer the center of attention but more of a facilitator to which is deeply involved in asking individual students about their choices while engaging them in deeper conversations on the subject to which on this case is mathematics. In the same setting, the students have also been proven to assist their peers and ask for help more often, thus leading to more interaction as well as more depth in learning. Through this, the students are capable understanding mathematics better as it is more practical than theoretical. The students feel an enhanced sense of self-esteem and confidence in the mastery of the necessary tools for success and have the potential of doing better than their parents. The computers allow the student s to learn by doing rather than trying to absorb the lines of information from the mathematics textbooks. They are also provided with an opportunity to learn through trial and error to which allows them to see how things work rather than forcing them to trust what the teachers say.

The computer games are among the best interaction programs, especially in mathematics. The computer games are deemed to improve the thinking ability of a student because they are made to face challenging episodes during the gaming that enhances thinking and creativity. Solving puzzles in the mathematical context help the student unravel the hidden tricks to which opens up their mind. They allow the students to make proper decisions and instant results are obtained thus making it able to evaluate the students instantly. It is not comparable with the traditional aspect to which the students could be offered homework and then submit the assignment the next day, in the present times, online postings are provided to where the student happens to solve the mathematical problems and then submit their work to where it is marked and graded without the influence of the teacher. The online assignments assist the student to save time as in the cases to which they encounter a problem they may communicate with the respective teacher online without unnecessary meetings. The online interaction between the student and the software programs to which consists the games allow the students to interact with the relevant material online and learn without any realization that they are learning.

Word processing, as well as the excel spreadsheets, are part of the online or the technological aspect of learning. The students, instead of using graph books to draw their curves as well as solving other related mathematical problems, the work has been more simplified making it easy for the students to have a mastery to the computer gaining knowledge on both the word and excel parts. The excel spreadsheets contain mathematical formulae that are accessible online and any other formulae that is relevant to the class is available, and therefore there is no need to carry along with books for reference. The lack of paperwork greatly motivates the students instilling the willingness to write and work because the computer feels less like work. It is unfortunate that most of us have no better handwriting, but this doesn’t constitute the technological learning as all the writings are made uniform and legible thus easy to read and digest the content. The writing tools change how the students think about the contents of a sentence and thus may decide to bold, italicize or any other emphasis tool to indicate creativity as well as enhance a sentence manipulating it for a better understanding.

The teaching websites that are available on the internet for the teachers contains broader messages, sums and other mathematical problems to which the teachers may refer to as guides and also act as a message board to where the student and the teacher may engage in conversations and work out on the difficult topics. The teachers can post materials that either goes with the lesson or more depth to sort clarification so that the students who are interested can be able to learn more about the particular topic in mathematics.

Digital textbooks can also be found on the internet and are for interactive reading that gets supplemented by games and quizzes that get the students actively involved in their reading. There are also the voice programs that read the material to the student enabling the student grasp the pronunciations of new and the difficult words and problems.

Videos enhance better understanding by the learners as they can see and hear the information at the same time. The videos allow for the things to be said directly with intent instead of the teacher trying to explain on a point over and over again. The videos are usually characterized by a detailed and organized explanation of the topics to which possess written outlines as well as the step by step instructions guiding the student in the best way to which they can understand easily. Music is an integral part of learning that cannot be omitted in digital learning, music often acts to sooth and as well introduce a topic. The music allows the students to be relieved off their tension creating a relaxed mood for learning. Music can also be presented among the difficult subjects for memorizing making it less intimidating for the students and change of perceptions on the topic. Furthermore, video conferencing can be integrated into mathematical learning where the students at different locations may be invited to interact in a video session and help in working out some problems to which the students may find challenging.

In my activity of choice, the students will use the Classroom Response System. The teacher poses multiple questions on a certain topic on mathematics to the students through a computer projector and each of the students is expected to submit an answer to the particular question using a handle held transmitter or a clicker that beams the radio frequency to the receiver that happens to be attached to the teacher’s computer. The software on the teachers computer collects the answers from the student and produce a bar chart that show how many of the students chose each of the choices and in response, the teacher makes on the fly instructional choices in response to the bar chart such as leading the students into a discussion onto which of the answer is right and how to go about it.