Technology in Teaching

If you have ever taught geometry, then you know how useful manipulatives are to teaching some basic geometrical ideas. From surface area and volume formulas to Pythagorean Theorem to early trigonometric identities, an easier way to teach these ideas with something that allows students to physically manipulate the parameters and then immediately see the outcomes is long overdue. There have been many attempts to create such materials, but they are either too bulky to use or too expensive to allow each student to have. Technology has now opened the door to allow every student the opportunity to use virtual manipulatives to better understand the ideas that form geometry.
The first thing that geometry classes need is a SmartBoard. I have used these tools and let me tell you, the kids love them! Even if all you do is normal math problems, the kids love to see the SmartBoard do its work. If nothing else, it will get the kids up on the board to do problems in front of the class. There are some valuable assets to this tool besides its flashiness. With very little practice, any teacher can move and manipulate the drawings on the board just as you would with a mouse on the computer screen. You can show an angle growing and , in turn, another angle shrinking in a triangle to show the relationship one angle has on the others in a triangle, you can virtually unfold a pyramid and measure the area of each face, thereby showing the surface area of it, or you can show a proof of the Pythagorean theorem to everyone in the class all at once. It is basically like taking your cool computer programs on your high speed computer and blowing the screen up about 20 times so everyone in the class can see you.
I am also a football coach and technology is something that is sorely missing from the teaching of that sport. I specifically coach the offensive line and footwork is a major part of this position; one wrong step and an otherwise easy block turns into a tackle for a loss and a busted assignment for the lineman. Another way to take advantage of this Dance Dance Revolution craze that has made so many kids sweat is to create some type of staging area, similar to the aforementioned game, that an offensive lineman could stand on and the platform would mark where his feet landed during the play. There would be a screen in front of him with a video of a real life play going and at the start, the lineman would be in his stance and then step to block according to what play was called and what the defender does. You could also have a sensor in the screen in front that would measure where the lineman’s hands go. At the end of the play, the screen would show the position of his hands and the steps he took to get there and would also in another color show the proper steps he needed to take and give him and immediate feedback score based on what he did compared to the perfect positions. This tool, although a little farfetched, could give immediate feedback to someone who has never had it!!
To stick with football, there is a current program out that allows a coach to program in the exact plays, mainly passing plays, and the exact defenses they will see those plays against in order to show the quarterbacks their reads in a particular pass play. It looks just like a video game but allows you to show your players exactly what you want them to see, not some NFL coverage or Tom Brady route package. The implications of having a program like this are great and would allow a good football program to become better by training its quarterbacks from early on.
Using technology to teach things that haven’t been used to technology is a step in the right direction if you ask me. Anytime we can find ways to better illustrate an idea we are trying to get across is a good thing.