Over this course, I have learned that being honest with yourself and your expectations of technology is essential. As an instructor, you have to set reasonable goals for yourself about how long the technology will take to learn and about planning lessons that effectively utilize that technology. As an instructor, you don’t want to throw the technology into a lesson simply for the sake of having it. It is important to ensure that the technology is used within proven teaching methods to ensure the greatest amount of benefit to the students. It’s also important to be honest with the students. I found that it is okay to admit that you are new to the technology as well, and to approach the new technology as a class community. It was helpful to have the students, who are usually a little bit more up-to-date with the “latest and greatest” teach me some of the things I did not know, or to see them work together in order to use the technology effectively.
I certainly feel that using the TI-Nspire calculators, as I did in my TechQuest project, certainly helped me think about the uses of this type of technology. I was an excellent tool in the fact that it is a calculator, but it is also so much more. The handheld Nspire allowed students to explore algebraic and geometric concepts without ever having to go to a computer lab where Geometer’s Sketchpad had been installed. Additionally, the TI-Nspire has so much more than just a calculator, or just a sketchpad program; it has a full-functioning operating system that allows students to save their work, return to it later, edit it and submit it to their teachers. I can see that use to the TI-Nspire can be extremely beneficial to student learning and offers a lot of the flexibility that many teachers are looking for. Over this course, I met my own goals of learning this new technology and implementing it into my own practices. Although, I have only had a limited experience of using it, I can see many future applications and plan to continue to use it in the future.
In the future, I will continue to use and integrate the TI-Nspire into my daily practices (when appropriate) and want to write a grant to get a Navigator system for the TI-Nspire so that students can wirelessly transfer files and activities within the classroom. It would alleviate the time spent on transferring files using one classroom computer and two USB cords. It would also allow students to turn in their saved work and then I, as the teacher, would be able to monitor their progress on the different applications we have done in class.
I certainly feel that using the TI-Nspire calculators, as I did in my TechQuest project, certainly helped me think about the uses of this type of technology. I was an excellent tool in the fact that it is a calculator, but it is also so much more. The handheld Nspire allowed students to explore algebraic and geometric concepts without ever having to go to a computer lab where Geometer’s Sketchpad had been installed. Additionally, the TI-Nspire has so much more than just a calculator, or just a sketchpad program; it has a full-functioning operating system that allows students to save their work, return to it later, edit it and submit it to their teachers. I can see that use to the TI-Nspire can be extremely beneficial to student learning and offers a lot of the flexibility that many teachers are looking for. Over this course, I met my own goals of learning this new technology and implementing it into my own practices. Although, I have only had a limited experience of using it, I can see many future applications and plan to continue to use it in the future.
In the future, I will continue to use and integrate the TI-Nspire into my daily practices (when appropriate) and want to write a grant to get a Navigator system for the TI-Nspire so that students can wirelessly transfer files and activities within the classroom. It would alleviate the time spent on transferring files using one classroom computer and two USB cords. It would also allow students to turn in their saved work and then I, as the teacher, would be able to monitor their progress on the different applications we have done in class.
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