Technology Reflection: Instructional Use of the Smart Board

Technology Reflection Assignment

Description/Experience

In the last seminar, we learned about the smart board, the mobi, and also portaportal. All three of these are great resources for teachers of all grade levels. I learned about various ways to include technological activities in the classroom using the mobi and smart board. The activities are very hands-on related, which gives the students more opportunities to be really engaged in the material. With the smart board, you can just walk up and use your finger to complete the activities. On the mobi, you use this electronic pen device to work on in it to complete tasks from the smart board. Smart boards are much more expensive than mobis. Therefore, it may be realistic to get a set of mobis for the classroom opposed to multiple smart boards. All of these new technological resources can be used for every subject area, and seem very engaging and motivational for students.

Application

Considering I am doing my tutoring hours at University High School, my learners are in high school. The majority of the students I work with are in the ninth grade. The students are now working on plotting points by looking at a linear equation with slope intercept form. In addition, they are learning how to find the slope. Before introducing the smart board, I will state the learning objectives for the lesson. I will express the significance of understanding the slope intercept form and the concepts behind it. To begin working with the smart board, I will bring up an interactive grapher from a website in the portaportal. Once I accentuate and explain how to plot points given the slope intercept equation, I will allow the students to interact with the smart board in groups of three. Because there are twelve students in the class, there should be ample time for each group to work with the interactive smart board. The smart boards will allow my students engage technologically. Therefore, they will not be required to stay in their seats and work with pencils and paper. I have learned that it is possible to save your work done on the smart board. So this will help me monitor the students’ work, and review it to see how well they are doing. I believe they will strongly enjoy this type of activity, because it is completely hands on and extremely interactive. The idea of this technology will allow the students to be very involved in their learning. Consequently, the students may become more motivated in learning their math.

Through the activity involving the smart board, the students should gain more knowledge about the smart board and the concepts and skills for understanding how to plot points and find the slope. The students will all actively participate with the smart boards, so a teacher will be able to recognize if the student it fully involved in the activity. This may help eliminate the idea of mock participation. After completing the smart board activity, the students should understand the significance of the x and y axes. There are many underlying concepts involved in working with linear equations or any equations for that matter. So, it will be very important to provide ample time for the students to work with the smart boards to become fully engaged and actively learning. By the end of the activity, the students should be able to graph points on a graph given a linear equation in slope intercept form.

To make sure my students fully understand the objectives, I will assess them a variety of ways. I will conference each of my students individually at the end of the week to see where they stand in regard to the other students; therefore, I will make norm-referenced interpretations. But also, I will assess them by criterion-referenced evaluations to see how well they are mastering this specific material. I may present a short quiz at the end of the activity, or listen why they have small-group discussions to answer essay questions about the graphs. I may also assess them from looking at their saved work on the smart board. This will be a very convenient way to see how they are learning this graphing material and how well they understand how to use the smart board.

• First, I will start by listing key information about plotting points using slope intercept form and finding slope.
• Then, I will clearly state the learning objectives for the lesson and activity.
• Next, I will present several examples using the smart board; this will help introduce how to use the smart board in general.
• After I present these examples, I will separate the class into four groups of three students.
• I will then assign numbers to the groups to decide which group goes first.
• While the students work in the groups, the other students will work on small dry erase boards to practice plotting points on a graph.
• I will monitor all of the students as they work on the smart board and work with the dry erase boards.
• At the end of the activity, I will pass out a paper listing a few questions for the students to discuss in their groups.
• Before the end of class, I will assess the students with a five question quiz to interpret if they have fully attained the learning objectives.

Reflection

-- Pedagogical-Content:

I will use various teaching strategies specific to the mathematical content I am presenting. I could use the smart board as an instructional tool to help present the new information involving the slope intercept form. In addition, I can use the smart board as a way for my students to become discovery learners. This also helps the students learn through cooperative learning by having the students work in groups of three for this activity. I believe this way will help my students better understand this mathematical material, because it allows them to critically think and problem solve. The students can help the student working on the smart board by talking them through it and explaining why you plot points using the slope intercept form. By instructing using the smart board, the students can learn in a more kinesthetic way. Therefore, the students may learn the mathematical content in a more new, exciting manner. So, this approach may enhance their motivation.

I would be very concerned about students’ pre-conceptions and motivations with mathematics. Because math is a more difficult and more conceptual than other subject, the students may already have the idea that learning math can never be fun. In addition, I will be nervous that the students have not learned the necessary prerequisites for learning these linear equations. I will have to begin teaching all of the mathematical content in a very fun, exciting way. This may help increase the students’ motivation to learn. In addition, I will teach this graph material by using many instructional strategies. I will use the smart board to approach the students in a more technological, 21^st century way. I feel the students will better relate to the subject, if I teach using more technology. To increase their motivation and engagement, I will provide several examples, demonstrations, and illustrations with the help of the smart board.

--Technological-Pedagogical:

            I will use the smart board to present the learning objectives for the lesson or activity. Also, I will use the smart board as a way for my students to really engage in the material. They will be able to learn and discover the new skills and concepts that the smart board has to offer. The interactive games and activities on the smart board will help the students get immediate feedback, so the students will be able to correct their mistakes as soon as the smart board recognizes they are incorrect. The smart board will support the way I teach this lesson, because it is very difficult to draw a straight and perfect graph on a chalk board. Therefore, this gives the students a more precise and accurate approach to graphing. So, this idea of presenting the material will enhance the students’ learning.

            To allow the use of the smart board, we may need to designate a wall to put up the smart board. I will have to rearrange the classroom to better suit the new technology. I will have to make sure the students understand that this is an instructional tool, not just for playing games. Therefore, I will have to designate rules for the smart board. However, I can also use the smart board as a positive reinforcer. If the students complete their work on time are doing very well with staying on task, I will allow them to play educational games on the smart board as an extrinsic reward. During the activity, I will to make sure they understand that this is an assignment, and I will use their work as an assessment of their knowledge. I will have to consider many classroom management strategies to incorporate this new technology in my math classroom.

--Technological Pedagogical Content:

The smart board could enhance the students’ learning of slopes and the slope intercept form. The students will benefit from this technology, because at their age it is very important they somewhat learn to have self-regulated learning strategies. So, this technological approach will enhance the idea of individualized learning, but also group or whole-class learning. From the activity, the students will be provided with several examples and demonstrations for working with the graphs. While the students are involved with the smart board, I will restate the learning objectives. This may enhance their learning, because they will be reminded of what they are learning and how the technology activity is helping them reach these objectives.

The students will be more interactive and hands-on with this technology. They will not have to write things down or just click answers. They will be able to literally plot the points on the graph using their fingers. In addition, they will be able to make little notes to themselves on the side of the graph to help them work through the problems. The smart board is a strong an effective way to keep the students engaged in mathematics. The students are also benefitting from the smart board, because they are learning about technology in general. As we all know, technology is always advancing and changing. So, as a teacher, we need to use technology in the classroom to help them keep up with the learning of it. For students in high school, math or doing any work can be devastating to them. By introducing this new instructional tool, the students may be more open to learning the material. It is important to be consistent and understanding of technology, also. It may be important to assess students with paper materials, because technology can lose the work. Therefore, it is very important to maintain differentiated instruction in all classrooms and subject areas. 

Comment to Blog Post 2

This would not post on your blog so I tried it this way until its fixed...

The outline of your lesson seems like a great idea. Using technology can definitely help students better understand information mostly because technology is so well liked by children of this era. I like how you mentioned what you would do if you did not have enough Ipads for each student. This is something I did not think about in my blog but is a very good possibility. Sometimes schools don’t have enough funding to supply technology for every single student but that does not mean we should not use the technology. Also some of the Ipads could have technical problems that day, which is something I have seen a lot in my classroom. By having an alternative you can save classroom time and in turn better manage your classroom. Assessing the students work in so many different forms is a good idea. You want to be sure the students completely understand the information. By gathering different forms of assessments you can tell which ways they understand and perform best and also how well they understand the information as a whole. You did a great job with your lesson and explained it well in terms of pedagogy content, technology pedagogy and technology content.