This week in Math we once again spent time exploring how technology is changing the way that we can facilitate the learning that takes place in our classrooms. Does it date me that I first learned math in an atmosphere where calculators were prohibited because they were “cheating”? Never mind that you have to have a pretty solid understanding of the concepts you are using to even know HOW to use that calculator to get the correct results! Obviously it was better to have to struggle, wading through hours of tedious calculations because it was a character builder, right?
At that time there was also the thought by some that if we typed papers on the computer we were cheating and letting the computer “do the work” for us. I actually had a teacher who would not accept any work that was written on a computer! Anyone who has ever used a word processor knows that it doesn’t choose your words for you, or tell you what or how you should write. It is just a way to “assist” you in your writing. It’s just a way to get what you have in your head down on paper without the tedium of writing, erasing, writing, erasing. I feel much the same way about calculators. Oh, how much more could we help our students progress if we are not spending hour upon hour of calculation practice and let them get to the concepts that these calculations were derived to explain? And if they are able to see a real world purpose for this math, won’t they be that much more likely to continue to learn, continue to find area of curiosity and use math to come to a better understanding of their world?
Isn’t this a much better system than boring generation after generation of kids with tedious work, making them resent math and being bored to tears? Boredom is a sure-fired way of getting students to tune out and write math off as something that they have no interest in. If we can just keep them interested, the learning will follow.
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