Welcome to Implementing Technology in the Math Curriculum!

The way Mathematics is being taught changed dramatically about two decades ago due to the rapid  growth of different types of technology available.  

The introduction of technology shifted the approach in the teaching of Mathematics from the traditional axiomatic presentation which was based on students' ability to perform certain computations, to a more active and exploratory approach in which students use the technology available to carry out routine  and tedious computations and they concentrate on understanding the concepts and directing the reasoning.

The introduction of the various technology made it possible to consider mathematical concepts and lab setting that had been previously ignored due to the complexity of the processes involved.  It also expanded the variety of problems that could be considered, allowing students to face more realistic situations and not those artificially constructed ones that led them to typical questions such as "What good is math?" "What is this used for?", "Am I ever going to use this?", etc. or provided them with a false sense of real-word problems.

From the students' view point, they are now learning concepts by discovery and analysis and not simply by memorization.   This  exploratory approach should be the focus when using technology.  The presentation of  the material in this way is one of the most challenging tasks teachers face.

This experience can be difficult for both the student and the teacher.  At times, teachers find the use of technology in the classroom to be overwhelming since they are teaching skills (mathematics) at the same time as they are learning them.   Furthermore, teachers find themselves forced to keep pace each year with  new technology .

Students also have difficulty because they are learning two different topics at the same time.  It is important to make students aware that whatever technology they might be using, they should think of it only as a tool to learn Mathematics.  In beginning courses, it could be confusing for the students when assessing their learning process. They might feel that they are learning, but this knowledge maybe in the technological component and not in the mathematical concepts.

When designing a lesson, students should be involved in some of the following activities

• Exploratory Problems

• Open-ended Problems

• Making Conjectures

• Proving or Disproving Conjectures

• Constructing Examples from Real Data

• Innovative Applications

• Inventing Problems (and Testing Answers)

There is a rich variety of math technologies arising everyday that can be easily applied to different sciences.  Since Mathematics is the common language of science, this approach increases the type of technological resources for the sciences in general.  If you teach a particular science, you can use topics from your subject area to develop the assignments.

For more detailed activities see  Implementing a Technology Plan