EDLD+5364+Week+2+Learning+Reflection


 * EDLD 5364 Week 2 Knowledge Reflection**

I found this weeks' videos and readings to be very informative and enlightening. Being a teacher in a Title I high school, I was especially interested in Michael Page's article on the effects of using technology with students from low socioeconomic families. (Page, 2002). I would like to see what recent research shows. I wonder if, and how, research results have changed as students who have been raised with computers in their lives and hands since birth enter and advance through the education system. With computers entering more and more schools, classrooms and family homes, I wonder if today's results are reflected in the results discussed in the article.

I am in agreement with all of the articles and videos that students who are personally involved using computers and computer-aided lessons learn the material much better than those who are taught using traditional methods. As a teacher of special education students, I have first-hand experience comparing how students learn, retain information, and respond to standardized tests when taught using traditional methods, traditional methods enhanced by hands-on activities, and lessons taught using or including technology and technology tools. Four years ago, I was allowed to order graphing calculator for my algebra and geometry students and their attitude toward solving algebraic equations turned from "I hate math" to "I can do this". When I introduced my geometry students to a dynamic software program that allows them to draw and measure geometric shapes, the depth of their understanding was amazing. Last year I got to bring a Smartboard into my classroom and the students suddenly 'loved' to do math. Especially when we use the Smartboard. last spring I brought a system into my classroom that connects each student's calculator to a classroom system that allows me to see(and project) what each student has on their calculator. It also allows me to send activities and quizzes to each calculator and the students respond using their calculators. As a result of this tool, many of my students (some, who before this tool couldn't remember how to add two numbers using the calculator) are now solving multi-step algebraic equations with ease.

My experience has also shown that, as the articles point out, the students learn better if they are allowed to work with the classroom technology rather than watch the teacher present material using technology. The more we, as teachers, can involve students in their own learning, the more our students will learn and the more they will want to learn. Given that every piece of information and any data a person would ever want to know is available to students at the touch of a button, teachers are going to have to start teaching students to learn rather than teaching them to memorize and 'regurgitate' information. We need to start focusing more on critical thinking skills and personal learning skills rather than information memorization.