Issues in Secondary Education

Referring to Nico’s Post, Nico, I think you really enlightened me. I never realized that Geogebra has that much potential and how well it can be used in Constructing Mathematics. During my school days I learnt mathematics, I enjoyed it but my understanding is very shallow or superficial. I learnt mathematics through the direct instruction of the teachers. So I never had a good grasp of the concepts. I think this generation is very luck; they can actually construct mathematics using tools like Geogebra and have an in-depth understanding. Good thing about Geogebra is it is free software. I think in mathematics all the schools should use this kind of software, and students will start to enjoy learning Mathematics.

Referring to Masako’s Post, Masako, I quite agree with you. I have been using Google for finding information all the time, it gives an endless hits and too much information, I really waste a lot of time trying to find what I need. Whereas with WebQuests, students don’t have to waste their time or going off the track. I quite agree with the fact that, it provides student centered activity. Most students love to cut and paste from the internet without reading properly and understanding. In WebQuest, the tasks are designed to achieve higher order thinking which I really like it. The good thing about WebQuests is the activities are designed to make the most of the student’s time.

Referring to Masako’s Post, Masako, I agree with you. Games are good way to get the attention of the children and to engage them into learning. So the Game designers need to be very careful in how well they design the game to achieve an outcome of the syllabus and at the same time make it more entertaining. I think the trouble with the students is they get carried away with too mush fun and they totally miss the point. I quite agree with you that the educators should help student’s know how there classroom knowledge is linked to real world. What Papert saying was that to allow the students to design their own games which will make them think how the mathematics works, instead of just playing a game designed by someone else?

Referring to Mark’s Post, Mark, I quite agree with you. What Papert trying to make out was the point that students learn by constructing Mathematics using programming languages. Those days the technology hasn’t developed that much but still they were some using constructionism. Now a days the technological has developed exponentially and it is accessible to most of the people. There are many software programs and packages that students can use to construct Mathematcis. I think the current education is not making a good use of this latest technology.

I have read this article, it is the about the experience of the author who is a mathematics teacher. She explains about the advantages of using Interactive whiteboard when compared to the traditional white board. I never realized that there are some advantages of using Interactive whiteboard until I read this article. I think initially the teacher has to spend more time to prepare lessons, but once they are prepared the teacher can use them any number of times, in the long run it saves a lot of teacher’s time (time spent writing on the white board every class can be saved). The diagrams and graphs look very good on the Interactive Whiteboard. The teacher can concentrate on the students’ responses because the program is driving the lesson. The numbers, diagrams and graphs can be changed quickly. I think using the Interactive whiteboard in the mathematics class can make a big difference in enhancing the learning of the students.

I have read this article; it looks at how web resources have been developed for Web-based K-12 Mathematics. Three different approaches are explored in this article. They are (i) learning with asynchronous and synchronous communication tools.

(ii) learning by accessing data sets and observing different data analysis methods.

(iii) learning in interactive environments.

I think now a days teachers and students are turning to the web for help and for online resources. I think these approaches will get the students into active learning in mathematics and they can also see how the mathematics is applied in real world by accessing the real-time data from the internet. I like the learning in Interactive environments; it provides opportunities for students multiple trails of a phenomenon. I like the simulations very much because they can help students explore various mathematical principles in an applied setting.

article

my-podcast

I have read this article, I quite agree with the author that learning to take tests does not result in meaningful learning because the tests assess skills and knowledge that are not related to their everyday experiences. According to the author, for students to learn meaningfully, they must be willingly engaged in a meaningful task. In order this to occur, the task that students pursue should engage active, constructive, intentional, authentic and co-operative activities. And Technologies can help to achieve this kind of meaning learning.

I was in the misconception that students learn from technology. But after I read this article, I realized that students’ does not learn from technology but they learn with technology. I think for teachers to create meaningful tasks for every lesson it would take a lot of time and planning, although they can explore the available online resources. During the practicums, I noticed that teachers are always busy with the huge work load and a lot of syllabus to get through. Let us say in future all schools have technology but teachers don’t seem to have time to provide meaningful tasks to the students. Everything the author said sounds good in theory and it will take a lot of hard work and time for the teachers to practice.

This paper was about the presentation of the use of ICT in education. The author addresses quite a few issues about how students learn, designing for effective learning environments and the potential for ICT in education. The author explains two scenarios of schools, Highville Grammar School and Plainville High school in relation to the ICT. Both of them are seem to be at two different extremes in how they use technology. 

I believe that ICT has great potential in Education by using the appropriate technologies to link the curriculum with the real-world problems, thereby enhancing the student learning. Based on the scenario 2, high level of student engagement is achieved, because the students are given the freedom in constructing the knowledge by exploring the topics using the net, and presenting it to the class using technology. In this case students enjoy learning. I quite agree with the author that good teacher and good teaching with the combination of ICT in education will make the learning more meaningful, magical and entertaining at the same time.

Papert , S (2008)

These web pages are about Seymour Papert speech to the Japanese educators in 1980s. I think what Papert was trying to say is a child learn by doing it rather than instruction of the teacher and he called this as Constructionism. I agree with the fact that part of learning mathematics at school is that it’s not like mathematics in real world.

The author gave quite a few examples of students who learnt by constructing mathematics using programming languages. Now days the programming languages have become more complex and most people don’t even need to learn them because there are many built in software packages doing the jobs of programming languages. I think we need to develop some simple programming languages or well designed software packages that can help students construct mathematics. For many generations, most students hated mathematics because they found it too difficult. I believe using Constructionism that can change in future. Of Course the current mathematics curriculum needs to be changed accordingly as well.