Math 371 Technology for STEM Educators

       Technology surrounds us every day. The smartwatch on our wrists, the phone in our hands, the laptop we complete homework on, the washing machine and dryer used to do laundry, and even the coffee machine used every morning to give us caffeine boosts are all considered technology. According to, “How many devices will you use in your life,” by WebFix, the average American lives to be 79 years old and will have 43.9 phones, 15.8-26.3 laptops, 7.7-17.2 TVs, and 13.2 coffee makers. As you can tell technology is taking the world by storm.      Relating this to my Technology for STEM class, it makes me wonder is there too much technology in the classroom? Or maybe a better question is, is there such a thing as too much technology in the classroom? In my opinion, there are benefits and downfalls to technology in the classroom, but is there  a fine line of too much technology?      Starting positively, there are billions of resourses a...

As I was thinking about what to blog this week, my mind kept coming back to a topic we talk about a lot in our pedagogy classes: homework in the math classroom. In middle and high school, the majority of my homework assignments were simply 2-40 even or something similar to that. Although they weren’t extremely long, it still felt like I was just doing extra problems for no reason. Eventually, there was more of a variety, but I still didn’t really know why I had to do that much homework since it was just a completion grade anyway. I tutor a student in Algebra I, and the review assignment for their first test was literally 80 questions long! Yes, it was review and they had a few days to complete it, but that is outrageous! The assignments have gotten shorter as the year has gone by, but he still has 30-40 problem assignments to do for every class period. Now why am I talking about homework in a blogpost that should be dedicated to technology? Well, this week we learned about different ...

               As a third-year math education major at South Dakota State, math exams have been on my plate since I started my post high school education. As this week ends, I just finished two exams over the course of the week, so as you could imagine I did my fair share of studying this week. I have never been great at studying nor have I ever enjoyed it. I thought to myself, “how can I make this experience easier for my students?” As time passes and technology gets more innovative, the cluster and sheer number of options for our students to utilize while studying can become overwhelming. Being a student in a time of such rapid growth in technology has shown me firsthand how exhausting it can be to siphon through it all.             Studying is one of the aspects that the teacher doesn’t have nearly as much control over. It is the responsibility of the student to put in the appropriate...

     Technology has become even more prevalent in education in the past year in ways that we may have never imagined it to.     In February 2020, if you had told me or any of my classmates that one month later the only way we would be able to attend class would be virtually, we probably would’ve thought you were crazy.     However, COVID-19 managed to make that crazy thought a reality.     One day we were leaving for spring break, a week later we’re told that we get an “extra week of spring break,” and then the next week we’re told that the university, along with every other school in the country, would not be holding face-to-face classes for the rest of the semester.     All of our class meetings were now held over Zoom, discussion posts became the one of the only ways of communicating with our peers, and all of our assignments were turned in using technology.     I was one of the “lucky” ones.     My adjustment...

                With the plethora of technology that is available to educators, it is quite daunting to be held responsible for implementing the best products into one’s classroom. It seems like everyday more and more software flashes across the screen with a new twist claiming this development will be the one tool that will launch your students into success never dreamt before. Then, there is the situation of being reluctant to envelop any new technology since the techniques and teaching styles being used now are already proving to be effective. What is the right move? What is the right course of action to take in this age where technology is calling the shots? Before that question is answered, let me share a thought that I have frequently. For a while, I have been keeping mental notes of what the supposed “best” way to distribute and share mathematical course material is. Here are some of the main contenders: SmartBoard, generic whiteboar...

After my classmates and I shared different educational apps with each other in our Technology for STEM Educators class this week, there seemed to be a common theme running with almost half of them.   While a few of the apps were amplifiers that consisted primarily of creating more effective and efficient ways for students to learn and grow, many were just apps that churn out answers for students. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of apps that solve equations for students who need only to take a picture of their problem without putting forth any effort. These apps pose a problem for educators and make assigning homework and evaluating students a challenge. Cheating has always been and always will be something students find a way to accomplish whether it be with homework, tests, or quizzes, and these apps make it so easy that even kids who may not have cheated before will use it. These apps and other related software have become so commonplace that even social medi...

      The Spring 2020 semester started and I'm sure many educators thought that it was going to be another regular semester. Oh they could not have been more wrong. As we all know from experience, COVID-19 hit the world by storm and flipped most lives upside down. Educators were not immune to this struggle at all. Teachers all over frantically figured out how to work ZOOM and post lectures and online content so their students could receive the education they need. That semester could not have gone worse for most teachers.      While this time of struggle was not enjoyable for many, it did bring out some creative and innovative ways to get students to learn away from the school classroom setting. During this time teachers were able to figure out how to record lectures so students could see what was taught even if they weren't in class. On top of that, ZOOM allowed for students to attend live class and have real life/time experiences with their teachers while...