This lesson uses a Smartboard (SMART Education, 2015) to demonstrate how to do mathematics problems with the teachers. The lesson is on distributive property methods. At the end of the lesson, students should be able to solve problems on their own without assistance. The teacher and the students will do several problems together and then the students will be asked to do several problems on their own. The students will be able to apply the properties of operations to the problems. The students will progress towards the projected goal by watching the PowerPoint presentation and working problems with the teachers. Supports are in the way of the Smartboard, which is used similar to a chalkboard in a regular classroom. The objectives of the lesson were clearly identified through a short introduction explaining what would happen to the students.
Feedback will be provided to the students through encouragement when they are working on the board. They will take a short test at the end of the lesson to make certain that they have grasped the material. The material will be presented, and then there is a question a question and answer session. Students engage in the lesson objective by participating when working their own problems on the board. In subsequent learning tasks, students will engage in the lesson by applying what they know to other properties. They will compare and contrast the various mathematical properties and rules.
In this lesson, the Smartboard replaces the chalkboard. The teaching method with this technology is the same as it would be using a blackboard. The teacher dictates and the students listen, learn, and then apply the principles (Wadwa, 2015). In this lesson, the teaching method followed the same basic principles that would have been used in the standard classroom, with or without the Smartboard. This lesson could be expanded by using the Smartboard to pull in multimedia or graphics from the Internet to add interest to the presentation. This would keep the students engaged. It would also allow the teacher to be able to appeal to different types of learners in the classroom, such those that are visual learners or auditory learners.
The teacher, not the technology is still the most important element of the lesson (Spirrison, 2014). In this lesson, the teacher serves the classroom in a similar manner as they would in a classroom without technology. Technology does not replace the teacher in any way. The teacher can use technology to enhance traditional lessons and teaching plans. Technology offers the ability to expand the lessons and make them more interesting. By using the Internet, the teacher may find a new way of explaining the principles that are being taught, or a different way of presenting the material. In this way, even a standard lecture-type lesson can be transformed into something that is engaging for the students.
Using the technology in the classroom gets allows the students to become familiar with technology and its use (Haynes, 2015). This prepares them for technology use when they get out of school. When the students graduate and go out into the world, technology will be a major part of the world in which they live. Showing the students how to use technology and allowing them to become familiar with it is the first step to helping them prepare for the future. In this lesson, the Smartboard was used in an ordinary way. Expanding the lesson by using multi-media from the Internet would show students how they could use the web to expand their communication skills in all areas of their life. Technology does not replace face-to-face communication, but it can add new dimensions to everyday interactions.
- Haynes, K. (2015). 12 Easy Ways to Use Technology in the Classroom, Even for Technophobic Teachers. Teacher Hub. Retrieved from http://www.teachhub.com/12-easy-ways-use-technology-your-classroom-even-technophobic-teachers
- Smart.Education (2015). SMART BOARD. Retrieved from http://education.smarttech.com/
- Spirrison, B. (2014, August 22). A Primer on Educational Technology: 5 Terms Parents Need to Understand. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-spirrison/a-primer-on-educational-t_b_5698445.html
- Wadwa, V. (2015, April 9). Here’s How We Can Reinvent the Classroom for the Digital Age. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivek-wadhwa/heres-how-we-can-reinvent-the-classroom-for-the-digital-age_b_7027300.html
