Should We Use Computers in Education? - TED Talk Response

 In his TED Talk, Clifford Stoll spoke about quite a few different things. Actually, he said he was not going to speak about those things but did a little bit anyway. He spoke a little about physics and his current hobby with physics. He spoke about his educational journey, specifically a mentor that the had early in his college career. He stated in his talk that he thoguht that all computers should be removed from the classroom, but I do not believe that he thought that all technology should be removed. In fact, he used some old technology to show an example of a lesson. that he teaches eighth graders. He used sound waves and frequency to calculate the speed of sound. I found the lesson to be very engaging and effective. In it, he measured the length of a sound wave then used that and its frequency to calculate the speed of sound. He explained how he implements this in his eighth-grade class. The calculations were not precise but close. I can see how an eighth grade class would be engaged in the learning process and not quickly forget the speed of sound.

I do not completely agree with Clifford Stoll that technology needs to be removed fro the classroom, but I do believe that it should not necessarily be used in every lesson. Students need to physically touch the material being taught as frequently as possible. In math, students need to put pencil to paper and practice solving math problems. However, we do live in a digital age, and there are plenty of resources out that that do a good job of effectively bringing technology into the classroom. I am learning to embrace it more every year. 

My students do use computers in my classroom. They use them weekly for iReady lessons, and probably once a week, I have them work on math practice on the computer. However many of those practice lessons are simply assignments that have been made into a prettier format and put into Google Slides. They could have just as easily been done on paper, but I wanted to change things up a bit. I do not think that is the most effective use of technology in my classroom, but I am still learning. When we have a big summative assessment approaching, I will often play review games with my students on sites such as Blooket or Kahoot. The truth is, I know that I do not use technology to its fullest potential in my classroom, and I am hoping to change that while still giving students enough time to practice solving math problems.

One way that I plan to use more tech in my lessons is to actually use it outside of the classroom. I plan on trying a flipped classroom this year, especially for my honors classes. I want to post videos of lessons, or possibly NearPods, for students to watch as homework. Maybe I will have some of my students actually record themselves teaching these lessons to post as resources for other students. My hope is that if students are able to learn some of the material at home, then that will allow for more time to practice problems and work on projects in the classroom. Some of those projects will be on paper, but I am hoping to incorporate technology into those projects. One idea that I had was to work with the STEM teacher and have students write a program to solve multistep linear equations. They learn to code in STEM, so this would be a great cross curricular activity. Also, my students love to try to cheat. They will put more effort into cheating than they will learning. However, I think that in order for them to write a program that will consistently solve multistep equations, they will first have to know how to solve those equations themselves. Maybe by letting them "cheat", they will actually embrace the math too. It will definitely be fun to see what they come up with!