Weekly Reflection #7 EDTL230.2008.M008

This week our focus was much more on the different types of academic software. Again, I was familiar with many of these programs because I’ve used them before. This class has caused me to realize that I was very privileged in terms of my technological exposure throughout my life. As the TRIO group presented their chapter, I was thinking about how I could integrate the software that they were speaking about into my future classroom. I thought of different projects that I could do, and I kept thinking that I have to be careful not to let technology dominate my classroom. Students have to understand the concepts without the technology before they can use the technology that deals with those concepts. I really like the idea of having the TI CONNECT software available for the students to use. In my experiences as a student, many of my classmates weren’t very familiar with how to use the basic functions of their TI-89 graphing calculators. There is so much that the TI-89 can help students to accomplish, and it’s a shame that so many students are unfamiliar with how to do more than the basic operations with it. I want my students to know how to use their TI-89 calculators because if they do, I know that they’ll find uses for them later on in their educational careers. I’m even considering doing a unit on programming if I ever teach a class of high school juniors or seniors. We would use Microsoft Visual Basic (if available) to create a simple program that would calculate the volume of a container if the user enters the dimensions and units desired. I have come to realize that there are so many ways technology can be integrated into the classroom. I just have to choose which technologies are most effective for educating and engaging my students.