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ABSTRACT: There is no question that technology has invaded our everyday lives. By the time students come to college, they have extensive experience with computers. Where are they getting that experience and what experience is it? They are proficient at playing computer games, they are experienced in word processing, they are knowledgeable about email and lately the Web. They do not know how to write a computer program, work with a spreadsheet, nor evaluate software. We plan to expose the students in the math education course to precisely those three areas: structured programming using Logo, manipulation of data in Excel, and evaluation of math educational software.
Please note that where there are attachments listed, they will
be provided on request.
Goals:
The Massachusetts Department of Education has expressed concern
that our elementary school teachers are not knowledgeable about
technology and consequently are not exposing their students to
it in the classroom. My goal is to expose Concepts of Math students
to different types of technology, types of technology that they,
as future elementary school teachers, may expose to their students.
Strategies:
Project 1: "The Twelve Days of Christmas" - Microsoft
Excel (see 3 attachments) Using that popular Christmas song, students
working in groups of four were asked to complete a spreadsheet
to figure out the total number of gifts given and the cost of
all the gifts. Data entry, formula formation, relative and absolute
addressing were shown in class previous to assigning this project.
Assessment of Project 1: The grades on the projects all fell in
the A and B range. However, I tested their knowledge of relative
and absolute addressing on an exam.
Out of 40 students, 32 correctly answered the question on relative
addressing and 11 correctly answered the question on absolute
addressing. Having taught spreadsheets in the past, I know that
absolute addressing is a difficult concept to understand. However,
I introduced spreadsheets in only one class period, so I am not
totally surprised. What does surprise me is how few students know
about spreadsheets and their uses, including computer science
geeks.
Project 2: Structured Programming using Logomation - a Logo-type
computer language (see 1 attachment) In addition to getting a
feel for geometric shapes, students learned how to write programs
to draw those shapes. Procedures and functions were stressed.
Working in groups of 4, students were asked to do two programs.
Assessment of Project 2: The group project grades ranged from
96 to 79 with a median grade of 85. On the Final Exam, each student
was asked to write a program worth 8 points.
Here is the breakdown of the 39 grades on this problem.
| Pts. received | Number of students |
| 8 | 7 |
| 7 | 5 |
| 6 | 3 |
| 5 | 2 |
| 4 | 2 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 2 | 1 |
| 0 | 10 |