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Successful teachers use every resource at their disposal to relate information and ideas to their students. One powerful way for teachers to accomplish this goal is through the careful implementation of technology in classroom activities and assignmen
ts. First of all, because technology is inherently interactive, students can be given the opportunity to "touch" and "feel" math. Students need to see math in action, like babies need to see an actual butterfly before they can understand and appreciate
what it means. Teaching math to a student who can't visualize the math idea in the real world can be like telling a blind person about the color green; there just is no way to describe it. Also, the use of technology allows teachers to delve into math
topics that would be harder to cover without technology. Students can flip coins for only so long before they become bored with probability problems, but
computers can simulate thousands of flips instantaneously so as to show how the probability of flipping a head converges to 50% as the number of flips increases.
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At the same time, technology can potentially be damaging to a teacher's classroom. Teachers could potentially become too caught up in the flash and flare that technology allows one to use while loosing site of the originally intended academic goals.
Additionally, using technology requires the teaching of how to use technology, so not only would teachers need to invest more time into learning technology than on preparing lesson plans, but also teachers would need to spend more class time teaching their students how to use technology. Also, some students will have technology at home and others will not, meaning that there will be a hierarchy of achievers in the classroom - some will be able to pick up math concepts quickly, while others may lag behind
and do poorer on technology related topics.
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Despite the drawbacks of technology, it can definitely change the role of the teacher in the eyes of students. Instead of being head lecturer and sage of knowledge, a teacher becomes a guide for students as they explore math topics. Teachers can then
channel their students creative ideas in ways to find new mathematical understanding. This type of relationship between students and teachers is
incredibly important in mathematics, as all math knowledge to date has been discovered, not given to mathematicians from some all-knowing teacher.
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Apple computers is an example of a company dedicated to integrating technology into the classroom. For more information on what they are doing, go to their education web site.
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