Welcome back to the Technology for Math Educators blog!

This blog only runs during the semesters when the course is offered so that is why you haven't heard from us since April 2013.

We are beginning the Spring 2014 semester and this semester's class has 11 students--this means that they will only need to blog once this semester.  I am looking for a couple of people who are willing to read this blog each week and then serve as a guest blogger in April.  If you are interested in that opportunity, let me know, sharon.vestal@sdstate.edu.

One of the things that makes this course interesting is that technology is constantly changing--this also means that the class is more difficult to teach because you have to consistently research the latest technologies.  I plan to put some of the research work on the students this semester so that they learn how to research technology as that is an important skill needed as a teacher.

Some other new things for this semester include:

• focusing the course around the 6-12 Common Core Probability and Statistics standards; and
• group presentations.

The reason behind the first change is that our graduates feel that they lack preparation in this particular area of the Common Core.  The second change is due to the fact that I have 11 students this semester instead of 6.

One thing that we will also likely discuss this semester is the attack on the Common Core standards.  I am fairly certain that the South Dakota legislature will have a bill this session that gets rid of the CCSS in SD.  It will be interesting to see how that plays out--my hope is that we continue with these standards as we have come too far to turn back now!

Sharon Vestal