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Showing posts from March, 2012

Student-centred use of technology

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A lot of the use of technology in mathematics can be very teacher-centred.   Tools such as Interactive Whiteboards can the unintended consequence of reducing student-centred use. Student use of technology can be much more powerful in terms of increasing students’ understanding. Using technology for problem solving A few years ago I wanted to construct a dynamic file that would display a cubic based on knowing the position of two turning points.  The task was a lot less trivial than I had initially thought but in solving it I think I learnt more about cubic functions in that hour than I had learnt in all the years previous to that!  My thoughts on completing it were that if this was such a powerful tool for me to learn mathematics through investigation and discovery then I should be giving my students the opportunity to experience this.  This is unlikely to happen through watching me operate software at the front of the class. As an aside, this is a really nice task.  Using some geome