Podcasts

A podcast is a series of audio or video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers. Podcasts are useful in many different environments. They cover virtually any topic you could think of, and are easy to find free online and even through I-Tunes. One of the most common uses of Podcasts is through language tutorials where the host instructs the listener how to speak a new language.

Although a very different subject than languages, Podcasts could also be a helpful tool in my future math classroom. When I was in eleventh grade, one of my teachers incorporated a funny video podcast into our Calculus lesson. It made the class, which started at 7:15 am, fun and interesting while teaching relevant information. I hope to include similar Podcasts into my class lesson plans to catch and hold the attention of my students. Podcasts can also be helpful as an outside of the classroom resource. Many high schools are beginning to create Podcasts of lessons so that students can rewatch and absorb what the teacher is saying a second time. Even more colleges are taking advantage of Tegrity Campus, a Tegrity product where every lesson is recorded with slides, electronic white boards, and whatever other technology the professor uses. Students quickly find just what they need by scanning thumbnail images or searching across an entire semester of class recordings using key words. During class, Tegrity's automatic tagging and indexing creates meta data for textual content of slides, websites and application names, which allows students to search for – and instantly find – specific learning moments. More specific to a high school environment, Podcasts can also be helpful for students who are falling slightly behind. Even if a given teacher does not have his own Podcasts, he could guide a student to available resources. I-Tunes itself has over a dozen Calculus tutorials on its own that could explain the information to a student in a different way that might make all the difference in his understanding. Therefore, Podcasts will be a very helpful tool in my future math classroom.

PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a presentation program developed by Microsoft. The program allows its user to incorporate text, images, sounds, graphs, and more into each slide to create a neat and professional presentation. PowerPoint is easy to use and is an extremely effective way to organize information to make a meaningful and profound impact on its viewers. Because of this ability, the program is widely used by people in the business world, educators, students, and trainers.

In my classroom, PowerPoint will be used as a useful tool. While a typical math class usual involves a chalkboard and chalk, a PowerPoint can be very helpful to provide a neater way for the students to take notes. It not only makes it easier for the teacher, since he does not have to re-write the same lesson over again four times in the same day, but also makes it easier for the students to read and place sequentially in their notes. Because the same PowerPoint could be used from one class to the next, it would also force uniformity of the examples and definitions present in each students' notes. This is helpful for the teacher so he knows exactly what was covered and that it was done in all classes. PowerPoint would also be helpful in my future classes when teaching students with learning disabilities. Instead of looking at a full chalkboard of writing and being overwhelmed or getting lost, the children would only be able to focus on one slide at a time. The teacher could control exactly where their attention is being directed by limiting how much information they could see at any given time. These are just a few ways that PowerPoint could be used as a useful tool in my future math classroom.

Mathematica

Mathematica is the one of the best Mathematics software available on the global market. According to Wolfram Research, is is not just for computation but for modeling, simulation, visualization, development, documentation, and deployment. It can be used for a wide range of simple and difficult computations ranging from those required for linear algebra and matrices to number theory and statistics. Mathematica contains the largest collection of algorithms which enable its user to fully operate across the widest applicable scope of numeric, symbolic, and graphical input. The program is also capable of creating high impact two and three dimensional graphs and tables of complex functions and data.

In my own classroom, I see the technology of Mathematica as an invaluable tool. When used in conjunction with a SmartBoard or less complex projector, I will be able to incorporate the program into my lessons with great ease. Mathematica will enable me to draw perfect graphs and geometric shapes quickly and flawlessly. In less class time than ever before, I will be able to create colorful, neat, and perfect visuals for my students to clearly understand the material. Mathematica could also be very useful in my future classroom when teaching probabilities. The factorials used in statistics can create very large and difficult numbers. Mathematica can calculate these factorials quickly and without error all while enabling the students to understand the concepts behind the 'big scary numbers'. Another statistics application is the ease with which Mathematica finds the Mean, Median, Mode, and other deviation information. Although the program can sometimes be confusing, the online tutorials, courses provided by the Wolfram Education Group, and the in-program Help Documentation Center make Mathematica understandable for all who really want to learn it. Once it is understood, Mathematica is a powerful learning tool that can make a profound difference in any math classroom.