Some aspects of mathematics and science are abstracts. Also, sometimes concepts taught are all new in terms of the contents elaborated. With this regard technology should aim to make instruction more accessible and interesting. Students learn better when they are interested, so technology is the best way to start as they all like technology based applications.
In general, students stay engaged in their learning when their ability to learn is continuously challenged with activities that contain rich experiences and authentic tasks; which that provide students with opportunities to extend their intellect, helping them to extend their way of thinking and what they know as they develop disciplined ways of thinking and encounter others’ ideas. Digital technology gives us tools to create such learning environment that promotes students’ interest and help them to create things that mattered to them.
In mathematics and science, digital technology can help visualizing, simulating, and facilitating analysis and interpretation of data. This will address many conceptual challenges. There are many technologies that we can use to improve teaching and learning in math and science. However, there are topics in math such as Complex numbers and Calculus where it is challenging to use technology to shift from algebraic manipulation to conceptualization and interpretation of our results.
Using technology to master a particular skill helps to address conceptual challenge. However, technology is not helpful for all learning skills. For instance, though the graphic calculators (GC) are very important to understand functions and algebraic equations. The data processing stage (algebraic manipulation) while solving a problem should not be neglected. The students should know how to process data before they learned to compute it their calculator. Knowledge over data processing is what helps the students to grasp the underlying patterns and principles which drive the production of graphs or results generate by the GC.
Hi Vivien!
I enjoyed reading your thoughts for the week. I think you touched on something quite fundamentally important (and widely discussed) about how students learn when you said that “students should know how to process data” before using their calculator and “knowledge over data processing is what helps the students to grasp the underlying patterns and principles”. To this end I’ve got a question for you (and the rest of ya)!
I found the following statement in CITE THIS: “For centuries, there has been a debate whether more emphasis should be put on learning by drill or on learning by strategies in the acquisition of new arithmetic facts.” This made me think of a question for ya (and the rest of ye)!
Do you think students should learn knowledge by drill or through learning by strategies?
I also had a few other thoughts as I read through. Don’t feel like you need to answer them all… maybe others could even chime in!
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•”Students learn better when they are interested, so technology is the best way to start as they all like technology based applications.” — Do ALL students like technology-based applications by default?
•”Students stay engaged in their learning when their ability to learn is continuously challenged with activities that contain rich experiences and authentic tasks.” — WHat does it mean to challenge a student’s ability to learn?
•”However, there are topics in math such as Complex numbers and Calculus where it is challenging to use technology to shift from algebraic manipulation to conceptualization and interpretation of our results.” — I found this hard to agree with. There are a massive number of YouTube videos as well as excellent digital manipulatives on GeoGebra and Desmos for both complex numbers and Calculus. Maybe I read your statement wrong. Could you clarify what you mean by shift from algebraic manipulation to conceptualization?
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That’s all for now! Thanks for getting me thinking 😀
-Scott
SORRY – I left a note to myself in the comment to cite something and forgot to add it in.
“CITE THIS” -> (Zamarian, Ischebeck, & Delazer, 2009, p. 910)
Reference
Zamarian, L., Ischebeck, A., & Delazer, M. (2009). Neuroscience of learning arithmetic: Evidence from brain imaging studies. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 33, 909-925.
Hi Scott,
One hundred years later :)…better later than never ya! Let’s see if I can answer all your questions.
– Do you think students should learn knowledge by drill or through learning by strategies?
It depends on the students’ mental age or ability to comprehend the instructions. I think students who cannot independently understand the relationships between objects taught and apply the instructions after some examples should learn by drill in order to develop the mental maturity that would allow them to understand the mechanism and eventually develop a strategy. However, the students that can apply the instructions and understand the relationships between objects taught should learn by strategies. I think.
– Do ALL students like technology -based application by default?
Maybe not ALL but the vast majority. Also, I think students actively engage in activities that tied to their everyday experiences. Technology is part of their everyday experiences from talking to their friend on the phone and digital scanners in the grocery stores to the video games and surfing the net.
– What does it mean to challenge a student ability to learn?
From a student-centered learning prospective. The instruction is most beneficial when it is just beyond the student’s current level of independent capability, not too easy to be boring and not too difficult to be daunting, just enough to represent the next logical step in his or her ongoing skill development. Such skills are usually measurable and the student can self-assess them, which that maintains engagement.
Thanks for sharing the article, I have not got the chance to peruse it yet. But I will, it is a topic of great interest to me.