"History of Technology in Mathematics"

The invention of the Scantron eliminated the hassle of grading multiple choice exams.

Teaching Style

            I am currently taking Teaching for Learning 1 course, which I am sure most, if not all of you, are taking as well. As part of our assignment for this week we had to read a chapter in our textbook entitled, “A Resource Guide for Teaching K-12”. In that chapter the author talked about the two main teaching styles and how they are different. The two contrasting styles are the traditional style and the facilitating style. The text went on to say that in today’s schools teachers must use aspects from each, but with a stronger inclination toward the facilitating style. I found this interesting and wanted to share my views on this, as well as get your opinions on what teaching style you might want to incorporate in your future classrooms.

            I personally, agree with the text, in that it is important to teach more in the facilitating style with a little emphasis on the traditional. Students in our classroom may have been taught the traditional way by other teachers and may not be familiar with the facilitating style. The text also says that a teaching style is determined on the teacher’s personal characteristics, experiences, and knowledge of research findings on how people learn. This is a very valid point, because most traditional teachers are not familiar with the new findings on how students learn nowadays. For example, a lot of classrooms have smart boards and teachers are incorporating technology into their lesson plans. In the traditional classroom you would not find that. You would see a teacher at the front of class lecturing and instructing the students to take notes and memorize things for tests. However, today, teachers are encouraging group work, peer learning/teaching, and are less the instructor and more of a guide to the students. I find that this is more effective for students to better understand the material and engage more in the classroom.

            In my future classroom I intend on incorporating both teaching styles in my lesson plans. I think it is important to try new ways of teaching and see what works and what does not work for the students. It is also a good way to get feedback from students on what works for them and what difficulties they might have with others. The traditional teaching style will always serve as that “crutch” for us teachers, in that we always have it to fall back on if our new style does not work. However, as we continue to learn new things each day I believe the traditional teaching style will become a thing in the past.

I would enjoy hearing what your thoughts are on the contrasting teaching styles and how you plan on incorporating technology in your classroom, if you intend to do so.

"Technology Autobiography"

            The three most influential communications technologies in my life are my cell phone, social networking, and emails. These have shaped my life for the better and worse. By having my cell phone always with me makes it easier to get in contact with someone, especially in the case of an emergency. It is also a very fast way of communication, because it is quick and easy to pick up the phone and text someone or give someone a call. I look to social networking when I am trying to find things out right away, because I know the information provided is always fast and up-to-date information. Emails also serve as another way to communicate with people quickly. I find that if a person does not feel comfortable dealing with conflict face-to-face they can simply deal with the problem via email. It has also played a major role in communication between professors and students. In the past, the only way students were able to get their questions answered was either in class or during their professor’s office hours. Now that email has come into play students are getting their questions answered quicker because they can now simply send their professor an email and get a response within 24 hours, typically.

            These communications have also shaped my life for the worse. I tend to notice that my cell phone causes me to be distracted. In classes I can tell that students are distracted or lose focus because they are paying more attention to the text message they just received. Social networking is not necessarily always exciting and a great thing to look at. People do not realize that employers, professors, etc. can see their profiles and they might have inappropriate pictures or posts that may get them in trouble. Recently, social networking has caused bullying to occur which has led to people committing suicide. People may not be aware of how strongly their posts, pictures, etc. can affect someone’s life until it is too late. Emails can be interpreted the wrong way, depending on the situation. I find that it is better to approach a conflict face-to-face so no one’s words are taken the wrong way.

            The technologies have impacted the ways in which I learn new information. The easiest and fastest way I tend to find up-to-date information is with social media. If I need or want to see how one of my friends is doing I will look at their Facebook page or Twitter before I text or call them. With that being said, I rely on text messages to “check in” with family and friends instead of picking up the phone and having a conversation the “old fashioned way”. Nowadays, people do not even communicate verbally over the phone. They rather find out how they are doing by texting them. Even if the information on social media may be wrong or misleading, I still find myself believing the information because it is my first source of knowledge. Later on, if I read something else and I find out that the original information was wrong then I will agree with the second source.

            There are some similarities and differences between my uses of the three technologies compared to those among the young people in the video. We both agreed that we use technology mainly for social purposes, such as cell phones and social media. We both said that the main reason why people are connected to their phones is because they are constantly texting friends to find out different information. We both also agreed that we could not live without our laptops and/or phones. We would not know what to do if we lost our phone or could not connect to the internet.

            There were also some differences between my uses of technologies and those mentioned in the video. The people in the video expressed that they use technology for school projects, such as using there camera phone to take better pictures or making websites for their school. I, on the other hand, have never learned how to create a website or even explored different applications on a computer. The young people also said they experiment with technology, because experimenting with it is what makes it technology. Again, I am not tech-savvy and would not even be interested in experimenting with computers or any other technologies, because I would be afraid of messing things up or breaking things.