When I was researching online and
deciding what to write about for this week’s blog post, I came across a very
interesting article called “Winning Equation: How Technology Can Help Save Math
Education.” The article starts out with a powerful statement about the current
math education in the United States. It says “Math
education in the United States is a broken system.” I kind of agree to the
statement and that one simple sentence explains why many students are currently
struggling with basic Algebra. Although we know that many students are
struggling in Math, but we don’t know how to deal with the struggle. Educators
suggest that incorporating technology into the classroom may help. For example,
the article suggests different online programs such as the Assistment Program
and SimCalc that teachers may incorporate into the lessons in order to keep the
lessons current and their students engaged. I agree that those programs may be
helpful because we are now living in digital age, where many things can be
accomplished through technology. We used to learn Math through lectures and
practice worksheets. The teacher would talk and write notes on the board, then
go over a couple of examples on the board, and that was it. But nowadays, students
don’t like that since they are all being exposed to different technologies
outside of schools. In order to make the learning experience meaningful to
students and help students see the purpose of what they are learning, we need
to relate our lessons to their daily lives. Therefore, I believe the need to
make our lessons relevant to students’ lives is the biggest reason why the
current school system continues to push teachers to incorporate technology into
their classrooms.
Although those programs claim to
help students to learn Math, but there are negative effects that the educators
fail to consider when they suggest to integrate technology with Math. Teachers
will tend to let the program to “guide” the curriculum or pace of the class.
Once they have the program in the classroom, teachers tend to build their
lessons around it. Teachers should be the one who is making the decisions such
as what and how to teach according to students’ needs, not the program. Therefore,
schools should be conscious of what program they are bringing in to the school
and how teachers are using them. Those expensive programs shall only be a
supplement to the curriculum, and not the curriculum. Also, giving online
homework through educational websites such as WebAssign may not always be
useful to students’ learning. It just makes the teacher’ life easier, and has
no benefits to students’ learning at all. Students may make an educated guess
to get the question right or work from the answer because students may find
pattern in the answers once they have done enough of the problems. I remember
that I used to purposefully get the question wrong for the first attempt, and
then let the computer to show me the answer so that I can work from the answer
to get the same question with different numbers right. Students can always find
tricks or other ways to get things right when it is given online or through
other technologies. Therefore, we need to be careful with how we incorporate
technology into our lessons.
