Chapter 11

Chapter 11 in M.D. Roblyer's Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching discusses integration techniques for math and science technology. I am studying to be a math teacher, so this chapter was very interesting for me. Personally, I found virtual manipulative to be the most interesting technology integration strategy. Basically, virtual manipulative helps students do simulated activities on the computer. These help make abstract topics and idea much more concrete. They let the student actually see what they are working with, and usually let the students figure out their own meaning for certain mathematical topics. The text offered some sample resources of virtual manipulatives. I visited some of the sites and found one that I liked very much: http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/. This site offered so many difference activities to helps students in so many topics in lots of subject areas, such as geometry, algebra, data analysis, etc. The site also offered sample lesson plans that use the manipulatives. I think this site would be very helpful for me as a future teacher, and also to help plan lessons for my classes now.
Technology also helps students with problem solving and seeing actual representation of mathematical ideas. Graphing calculators are a big help in helping understand the symbolic, graphical, and numerical representations of the same data. I have experience with graphing calculators and they really help you visualize things like functions or plots. Also, I have worked with Maple, the computer algebra system. This is like a very advanced calculator on the computer, and it lets you see 3d graphs and figures. I think it is very useful.
The text then moved to talk about integrating technology into science. The text stressed how there is a growing concern about the competition that America is now facing with mathematics, science and technology. I recently went to a talk in which they discussed this recent trend, and it is true that education needs to improve in math, science, and technology. Using technology in math and science classes is a good way to improve this. I think there were a few interesting science integrations of technology. Technology allows students analyze data and create their own spreadsheets and charts. The Internet allows for students to research current data and get up to date information. Also, technology allows for students to see representations of data, phenomena, and scientific processes that would be difficult to understand if just reading about them. For example, photosynthesis or mixing colored light may be processes that are difficult to understand. However, technology has the ability to make these more understandable for students. Students can also see or do other types of simulations. They could mix chemicals, or complete virtual dissections of animals. This could help with costs, and it would also allow for students to complete many more runs of experiments. They could see how a little difference could change an entire situation.
I think that math and science have countless opportunities for technology integration. Also, since technology is rapidly improving, there will most likely be more integration techniques and ideas emerging every day. It is important for teachers to keep up with this. There are so many good resources available that I did not know about, and I think many teachers would be happy to use them.