Running Head: TECHNOLOGY PHILOSOPHY Smith 1

Crista Smith

Technology Philosophy

Ms. Smith
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Intro

Technology is advancing every day and it can be difficult to keep up with its pace.

Although it is changing rapidly, it is the most effective tool that can be used inside the school

classroom to enhance a student’s learning and peak their interest. I will share my beliefs about

using technology in the classroom and my personal usage of technology in the classroom along

with how it affected the students.

My desire as an educator is to give students the chance to show what they know and have

learned through different creative avenues such as technology. I do, however, want to be wise to

know how to “make informed choices” that “uses technology to improve learning, not for the

sake of using technology” (Maloy, Verock, Edwards, and Woolf, pg. 4). Keengwe, Pearson, and

Smart reiterate the same thoughts in their article when they say, “the most effective way to

benefit from the use of technology tools is to integrate them into the curriculum as

opposed to integrating curriculum into the existing technology” (Keengwe, Pearson, and

Smart, pg. 334). If technology proves to not work, I will cut it from curriculum immediately for

the sake of my students learning experience and understanding. With that being said, I believe

technology will enhance their learning and help students become critical, creative thinkers that

will be prepared for their future and the benefit of our world. In the next couple of paragraphs, I

will share how I used the minimal amount of technology and how I would like to use more

technology in a future lesson.

I taught an 11th grade class at Cass High School and the standard consisted of knowing

and applying the remainder theorem. They had no previously knowledge of the topic and this

was concluded through a pre-test. I had to teach synthetic division in order to show them how the

remainder theorem worked. I did a few examples on the smart board and then I had them do a
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remainder theorem game that was put up through a PowerPoint presentation. They did the

problems assigned and at the end they put the answers on the board to see that once the put their

answers in the box and added the numbers up, down, or across it would equal the same number,

the “magic” number they were to find. This was the minimal technology usage due to the fact

that the teacher didn’t really pursue figuring out a way to send the game to the students through

their email. If I had the opportunity I would have liked them to experience the game as intended.

The technology that I thought would be beneficial for this task was using their iPhone or

computer through google docs. They would go to the document and solve the synthetic division

problems as we did in class on the document. They would drag the box with a number on it to

the box that has the answer to the problem. Once they have completed this with all the synthetic

division problems, they would add up, down, and across to get the magic number. This would

enable the students to work with the technology themselves and work with the problems

themselves. It would be a way to have a slight competition to who gets done the quickest, but

they could also help each other if they didn’t want to play it as a competition. Integrating this

technology game helps to cut down on collecting papers because the assignment can be uploaded

to the teacher instantly (Maloy, Verock, Edwards, and Woolf, pg.12). I believe technology is

highly important to teaching in general but especially math. It is important because it keeps the

interest of students and it is easy access to learning more in depth about the topic that they may

need help understanding. In the next paragraph, I will explain how I saw the technology affected

the students in the lesson.

The students were excited to try the Remainder Theorem game when I set it up on the

PowerPoint. It seemed to have a positive impact on their motivation to practicing what they were

taught and it showed in their work when they provided correct answers after spending twenty to
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thirty minutes on the activity. They then were excited to figure out the magic number after they

gave their answers. I believe this technology game was a success in adding to the curriculum and

engaging the students. I feel strongly that if they were able to play the game on their own device,

they would have enjoyed it much more. I also would have been able to see if each student

understood the process clearly as opposed to receiving group answers. Over all I saw the benefit

of technology in the classroom.

In conclusion, I think technology is a staple in the classroom to engage students today,

but I concur with the authors cited earlier that teachers should be wise when to use the

technology and how to use it. A teacher’s responsibility is to offer a student the most effective

and clear lesson while creating an atmosphere that brings a desire to learn more and technology

is an avenue that provides this for the teacher. I desire to learn more about technology so that my

students will benefit from knowing that learning can be interesting and fun.
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References

Keengwe, J., Pearson, D. & Smart, K. (2009). Technology Integration: Mobile Devices (iPods),

Constructivist Pedagogy, and Student Learning. AACE Journal, 17(4), 333-346.

Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education

(AACE). Retrieved April 13, 2018 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/29411/.

Maloy, R. W., Verock, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. P. (2017). Transforming learning with new

technologies (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson.