ASSIGNMENT
As the Dean of a prominent college of education with a highly regarded teacher preparation program, it has recently been brought to your attention that teacher training graduates are going to schools that have far more technology than they used in their college preparation courses; it is commonly reported that recent graduates are not well trained and have little sense of how to make effective use of many available technologies in their new classrooms. How might you transform the teacher training program in your college to improve this situation?
TASK
Select one of the following technologies for this activity—you will need to acquire the technology to complete the activity:
Activities and Tasks 173
1. slide rule;
2. graphing calculator;
3. spreadsheet program;
4. smart phone with downloadable apps;
5. dynamic mathematics software.
Once you have selected your technology, next select a specific learning goal or objective
to be supported using the technology. Ideally, this would be a meaningful goal or objective
that can be linked directly to a specific job task or curriculum standard. Next, develop
a plan for a unit of instruction that incorporates this technology in support of the targeted
learning outcome. Then, document how the teachers/trainers and students will use the
technology in that lesson. Finally, document what specific problems you anticipate in
the successful deployment of this unit of instruction.
