How can technology support good mathematics teaching and learning for these priority topics?
See Standards-based Classroom Examples
Here you will find 12 vignettes that show middle grades teachers using specific applications of technology. These
vignettes will help you initiate discussions about how a teacher uses technology in a classroom setting:
- What specific learning outcomes is each teacher trying to achieve?
- How does technology help them to achieve this goal more effectively?
- How can they assess their students’ learning?
- How is the class organized? Are students working as a whole class? as a small group? individually?
- What follow-up is appropriate?
Starting the discussion by analyzing other teachers’ lessons provides a safe ground for participants to explore their
own beliefs, teaching practices, and possible ways of developing their teaching skills and repertoire.
Look in the Classroom
In this section of each Classroom Example we show how a skilled teacher uses technology to teach his or her students.
In addition to the dialog between teacher and students, each vignette is designed to reveal the teacher’s thinking
process and to paint a rich picture of standards-based classroom practice in the hands of a skillful teacher.
The Value of This Technology
Each vignette also includes a section, The Value of This Technology, that can be used to stimulate participants’ thinking
about how to enhance or create teaching and learning opportunities through the use of technology. If you have your
workshop participants doing one of the hands-on activities using technology, then the debrief might include discussion
of the value added by the technology followed by a reading of the relevant sections of the Classroom Example.
Of the technology applications showcased in the 12 classroom examples, six are accessible through the Web and
only require a browser such as Internet Explorer. The other six require the purchase of a particular piece of software,
e.g., Geometer’s Sketchpad or Excel, or a tool such as a calculator.
From a research perspective, how much is known about the role of technology in supporting student learning?
See What the Experts Say
If your participants include school and/or district decision-makers (e.g., principals, district directors of mathematics,
mathematics department chairs/coordinators), the resources in this section will be of great relevance).
There are two kinds of expert resources in this section. First, there are researchers, persons active in the field of
educational technology who possess a decade or more of experience testing specific approaches; their experience can
be very valuable. The Interviews section of this site includes transcripts of interviews conducted with two of these
researchers—Judah Schwartz (Professor Emeritus and software author) and Jim Kaput (Professor of Mathematics and
founder of Algebra Working Group)—and their comments are of broad relevance for mathematics educators. Parts of
each interview are also presented as three- to five-minute sound clips selected to generate discussion among workshop
participants. Jim Kaput talks about issues such as evidence of the positive impact of technology on student learning,
prognoses for the roles of various kinds of technology in the future classrooms, and the impact of technology on the
enacted curriculum. Judah Schwartz talks about research evidence for technology as a useful tool for inquiry learning
and investigation. He also talks about his own educational software, one example of which, called "What Do You Do With
a Broken Calculator?" (Sunburst Technology, Inc.), is noted in Classroom Example #3. Judah talks about important
changes that need to happen in the teaching of mathematics at the middle grades level and how technology can help
these changes to occur.
Second, in Guidance from Expert Panels, we summarize briefly three important national reports. Each report reflects
the result of thorough, carefully reviewed work of an expert panel and reflects a consensus of a group of national experts
on the questions that they address. This consensus is largely consistent across the three reports and contains information
that will be useful to district and school decision-makers.
- Getting Students Ready for Algebra I, a report published by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB),
provides the 12 “content-specific readiness indicators” that we used as the organizing structure for this website.
- NTCM’s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (2000) emphasizes the importance of every student
having access to technology and to a teacher skilled in its use. The NCTM Technology Principle is described; from
this principle, we have extracted seven qualities of technology that could help improve mathematics instruction (see
Qualities of Technology that Support Good Learning
Practices in Mathematics)
- The Expert Panel on Educational Technology designed and tested a model for defining the quality of programs that
use educational technology. This framework—model, rubrics, criteria, and indicators for each criteria—is now available
and of potential help to district leaders in creating programs in their districts that are likely to be significant in their
impact and sustainable over time.
The three key parts of the site—Classroom Examples, SREB Readiness indicators, and What the Experts Say—are
always accessible from the left hand navigation bar as you work you way through the site.
While each of the major areas of the site can be used by itself, they have been carefully constructed to support each
other. The Mission: Algebra home page illustrates this inter-relationship around the concept of probability. We have created
a chart that shows
in detail the relationship among the three parts of the website; this chart will be helpful in planning professional development
activities.
For further help in understanding the organization of the Mission: Algebra website, we invite you to listen to
a multimedia recording of a webtour that
NEIRTEC staff presented to online participants in March 2005.
The following three workshop scenarios are designed to help inform leaders of professional development about a
range of uses for the Mission: Algebra website and to stimulate their own thinking about how to use the ideas and
materials from this website to improve middle grades mathematics in their own district. As with all good professional
development, your workshops should link as closely as possible to existing school and/or district initiatives. Workshops
that focus on technology as technology are increasingly seen as irrelevant by teachers; workshops that use technology
to help reach important school and/or district goals have a much better chance of reaching teachers on issues they think
are important and therefore care about.
