In this day and age, almost every child is exposed to technology in one form or another. The children are skilled at using these technologies and one cannot deny that it is growing to be part of their daily lives. It is no wonder then that technologies play an important role in children's education as well.
Chapter 7 impressed upon me how essential technologies are both for learning and teaching. Rather than it being a once-a-week, touch-and-go lesson, technology can be used to enhance students' opportunities to learn math.
One of the technologies mentioned in the book was the use of calculator. I have never thought of using a calculator to help children learn concepts such as problem solving and counting on. However, after reading about it, i couldn't help but think how obvious it was and wonder why we never thought of it. A calculator!! for teaching MATH!! Now, who would have thought of that! ;)
I used a calculator in school, but only when I was in Secondary school. Back then it was used to key in random numbers from our worksheets, maybe a cosine or two and tadah! I'd arrive at some answer which I did not know for sure was the correct answer. When we got bored of all of that we used the calculator to find ways to key in numbers to make "words or sentences" like "1 177155 4" which translated to I MISS U.
Reading Chapter 7 also made me realise that electronic manipulatives have advantages over the physical models. One of which is unlimited materials with easy clean up. Students can begin a new problem easily with just a click of the mouse.
I enjoyed using the Shape Tool on the Illuminations website. The shapes could be cut, expanded, and rotated among other things to make new shapes and patterns. It was so interesting to see all the various activities and tools that parents and teachers can use to help children learn various math concepts. The activities were fun and definately brought the idea "unlimited materials with easy clean up" to play.
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