Video can enhance opportunities for teachers to see technology in action in real classrooms and consider issues related to how it can support students’ learning of mathematics and statistics. To supplement the modules in the Preparing to Teach Mathematics with Technology, we conducted interviews with 21 teachers who used the PTMT materials as part of their teacher education and were in their first through seventh year of teaching high school mathematics (typical experience was 3.5 years). We collected video of teachers as they used technology in their high school mathematics classrooms. Also included are several videos that are animated depictions of real students’ work on technology tasks. Collectively, we hope you and your teachers enjoy, and learn from, these Voices from the Field.
Teacher Interview Videos
Advice for new teachers to using technolog
This video features several secondary mathematics teachers with 3-5 years of teaching experience who give advice to teachers who are beginning to incorporate technology in their classroom. The advice given can help beginning teachers of any subject have a realistic image for how they can set goals for themselves for using technology in their classroom.
Deciding to use technology – Why, when, and what to use
Teachers make instructional decisions every day to best meet the needs of their students. This video features several secondary mathematics teachers with 3-7 years of teaching experience who describe why and when they choose to incorporate technology, and which technologies they use and why those tools support their instruction.
3. What makes a good technology-based math task?
Whether mathematics teachers are creating a technology-based task themselves or evaluating a technology-based task to decide to use, they are looking for certain characteristics in a task. There are two videos: 1) expert teachers describing characteristics they look for and 2) novice teachers describing the most important characteristics they consider.
Classroom-Based Videos
Supporting learning with multiple technologies
This video features a high school teacher who integrates a variety of technology tools (computer and projector, calculators, document camera, laptops, variety of apps and software) in his classroom to support students’ learning. With access to such tools, this video can provide a glimpse of how one teacher decides to use the tools to support his instruction.
Using technology to support small group and whole class discussions
This video features a teacher who integrates a variety of technology tools (interactive whiteboard, laptops, dynamic geometry tools and google docs) in his 6th grade classroom to support students’ learning. With access to such tools, this video can provide a glimpse of how he uses the tools to support his instruction by having students working in small groups and engage in whole class discuss about their reasoning on a geometry task.
Using open-ended task and dynamic simulation tools
In open-ended tasks, students have a lot of freedom to choose how to produce a solution and support their work with appropriate evidence and arguments. This video gives an opportunity to consider how an open ended simulation task can be used for students to make claims about data collected from an unknown probability distribution.
Orchestrating a productive discussion from a data investigation
This video gives an opportunity to consider how a teacher sequences the sharing of students’ work and asks questions to encourage students to explain and justify their work. This video is an animated depiction of actual students’ work on the vehicle fuel economy data investigation in the Statistics Investigations materials (Chapter 4)
Orchestrating a productive discussion based on a geometry exploration
This video gives an opportunity to consider different approaches that students take to a open-ended dynamic geometry task and how a teacher asks questions to encourage students to explain and justify their work. This video is an animated depiction of actual students’ work on the dividing land investigation in the Geometry materials (Chapter 3).