Ch 9 of 20: Technology

I don’t want to sound old fashion, even though I might be just that, but technology, sometimes, is just in the way of learning, at least in math, and especially in the lower grades where students are learning basic skills of calculation. If it was up to me, I would not propose calculators’ use until after algebra II. When students are presented with technology aids before they build a brain capacity to understand and figure out a way to solve a problem, their ability to think is cut short too early and their thinking process is being incapacitated.

Since the time I learned arithmetic, many “progressive” methods were introduced to the education system with, in my opinion, regretful results. Even before technology became so available and popular, a “new” method taught students to do the four basic arithmetic calculations using a digital, counting, method. Instead of developing a mental process of adding and subtracting, creating thus a brain picture for the meaning of these operations, they practice counting. While for my generation solving six plus seven was a mental process that we each developed in our mind (for me it was completing to ten and adding the leftover…), most students nowadays do all four arithmetic operations using their fingers; memorizing the multiplication table has become a big no-no, for some reason …

This digital (counting) method, by the way, is very successful with special needs students, and even children with severe disabilities are able to use it. The question is why teaching a method meant for less capable minds to perfectly capable brains. Why restrict students’ thinking process and thus limit their future ability to grasp more advanced concepts?

This incapacity manifests itself as soon as they start algebra, where abstract thinking skill is required. The list of subjects with which students struggle in algebra, as a result, is very long, starting with simple factoring. When they reach geometry, they are completely lost… They just don’t get it. Math and science teachers are continuously frustrated with their students’ inability to think beyond the very concrete, structured instructions.

My first full time teaching job was at a reputable high school, teaching math to students with special needs – mild to moderate. Being a brand new teacher, with very little experience, and not quite buying into the special education system, I didn't give in to the “can’t do” attitude of my SDC (Special Day Class) students. I demanded from them what I later demanded from all my general education classes.

At that class, one of my SDC students completely mastered multiplication and division. He was not one of the brighter students otherwise, so I was amazed and thankful for this ability. When I met his father, he explained to me that he insisted that his son memorizes the multiplication table. He told him that if he is capable of something as complicated as figuring out how to put together the sound system, plugging all the wires into the correct connections, he must be capable of learning something as simple as the multiplication table, and he made him learn it…

As a teacher, my misgiving of technology has to do with watching with dismay how students of middle and high school are incapable of doing essential math operation. When students as young as elementary learners are reaching for a calculator to solve simple addition and subtraction problems, and middle-schoolers depend on technology to solve easy multiplication and division problems, mastering a basic skill like long division becomes a rarity and uncomplicated fractions and decimals questions become mission impossible…

As an observer of the education organization I am half-amused half-angry (being a taxpayer) at the tremendous waste that goes into the technology craze.

Almost any type of technology is expensive, and has to fit into some budget strategy. Teachers who plan on using calculators, for example, should find a way to stock their classroom or have an access to the prized storage. At one school, I had to get rid of the entire math related supplies at the end of the school year because of an English teacher who requested that specific classroom. All the items that were accumulated there for many years of math teaching had to be removed. Going through the supplies, I could not believe my eyes, seeing all the riches hidden there. On top of endless piles of basic items, there were tens, if not hundreds, of scientific calculators, and almost as many graphing calculators, a treasure that would make any math teacher the happiest person on campus…

I stood there, dumbfounded, not knowing what to do with all this wealth. The administrators who could have stored and saved it had already left the campus and I ended up distributing priceless items to whoever was present and expressed slight interest. Since I was not sure I would be there next year, I didn’t save any for myself… The following years, still on the same campus, facing a shortage of supplies, especially calculators, I would remember with dismay the lost treasure... 

(By the way, this English teacher decided that she didn't like my room, after all, and caused another teacher, young, good and well organized, to go through the same classroom dismantling process… Three month into the school year, this English teacher left on maternity leave and never came back to the school…) 

Public schools receive technology budget and in most cases, the rule is “use it or lose it”. It was not an unusual situation, then, that in one school, while being on a tight budget for the very basic supplies (papers, pencils, markers and so on) a decision was made to install a smart board in each classroom…

I was in the middle of teaching a lesson, trying my best to convey an algebraic concept, using every square inch of the white board and encouraging students to copy, when a knock on the door disrupted my class. I opened the door to two guys, holding a huge smart board, informing me that they came to install it. “Now?” I asked with disbelief? “I am right in the middle of the lesson!” This information didn't seem to impress them much, and they marched directly toward my white board, with serious intentions to remove it right there and then and replace it with the smart board. Stepping forward, I was ready to physically block their way. Adding extra pleading mixed with threatening, I, somehow, convinced them to agree to come back at another time. The compromise was that for now they will just mark the location… So they drew a big black ‘X’ right in the middle of my algebra jargon, and happy with this achievement they did exit my classroom, leaving me still perplexed about the event that almost took place…

By the end of the semester almost every single classroom was equipped with a smart board, but, sadly, only very few were used… Five years later, working in many public and private schools since, I have never seen so many smart boards at any single school. The sad part is not only that most boards were not utilized, and that they replaced a necessary white board space, but that they used up an enormous amount of money that was desperately needed for basic supplies…

I have recently seen classrooms with rows of unused, dusty computers. A teacher told me she was assigned to a classroom full of computers that she needed for her course, but none of them was connected… Schools are stocked with hundreds of computers, only part of them are in a usable condition… but – there is a new idea now, fresh from the education politicians with the help of savvy business men – an iPad for every student! Another untested idea that until proven helpful or unhelpful to students, will cause a chaos in the classroom, add extreme stress on teachers and will cost millions of taxpayers’ dollars… 

Link:

http://tekbot.unl.edu/SPIRIT2/Articles/TPCKinMathArticle.pdf