Wathall Chapter 7: How Do I Integrate Technology to Foster Conceptual Understanding? by Kevin Higuera Parra

SAMR Model

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 08:37:39 UTC

The SAMR model is an abbreviation for the different levels on how we integrate technology into the classroom. There are four different levels. Those being substitution, augmentation, modification, & redefinition.

Substitution: This involves the usage of technology replacing an original method with no functional difference. Such as typing a paper instead of writing it.

Augmentation: This involves the usage of technology replacing an original method with a functional difference. Such as collecting survey results with technology as opposed to gathering tons of individual responses (that takes much more time).

Modification: The technology is able to redesign the structure of a task & offer significant improvements to it's original design. Flipped classrooms for example would be very difficult to do without technology. It would require the purchase of & sending out of a lot of materials for the students to be able to do an offline flipped classroom. With technology all the resources can be managed in one place.

Redefinition: Here, technology is able to create entirely new tasks that were not possible before. Such as virtual tours that take place in other countries.

TPACK Model

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 08:37:59 UTC

The TPACK Model is often represented as a tri venn diagram. It involves 3 main knowledge areas & their intersections. The 3 areas are Technological Knowledge (TK), Pedagogical Knowledge, & Content Knowledge (CK). Each of these knowledge areas is important to have, as we head more into the 21st century TK will only become more important. Ideally we want teachers to get to the point where they can successfully synthesize all 3 knowledge areas into their teaching.

When to & not Use Technology in the classroom.

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 08:38:43 UTC

Generally speaking technology should be used to enhance learning, reduce tedium in very procedural tasks, or make content more accessible . If it doesn't do either then there isn't much reason to use it. You would probably be better off to using offline methods since they would reap the same benefits & be possibly less distracting.

How to Integrate Technology in the Math Classroom

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 08:39:17 UTC

Technology can be used in the math classroom to make learning interactive & help them build their critical thinking skills. Students should experiment with the material they learn so they can discover what does & doesn't work. Technology has a lot of features that make this process easily accessible (different toggles, undo, saving work, etc.)

Graphing Software

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 08:44:07 UTC

These kinds of softwares are used to graph a variety of different equations, inequalities, etc. This can help remove some of the tedious aspects of having to graph more complicated equations. The graphs can be seen immediately & students can focus more so on the concepts of a graph. Such as how a graph changes depending on what values are inputted. Desmos is a common graphing tool. It's beginner friendly & there's quite a lot that can be done with it.

Flipped Classroom

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 08:44:20 UTC

In flipped classrooms students are responsible for learning the material outside of the classroom. Then in class the teacher guides students through any challenges they may have faced during their learning. More time is spent covering unknown & clearing up misconceptions, as opposed to reteaching material students may already be competent in.

Multimedia Projects

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 08:45:08 UTC

Multimedia projects involve different ways in presenting the same concepts. This refers to looking at things with different contexts or mediums. This can even be done with subjects like math. You can bring in different content areas or other topics of interest your students may have that are relevant with the math you're learning. Such as sports, games, etc.

Google Applications

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 08:45:35 UTC

Google offers a lot of different websites/apps that allow you to work collaboratively with peers to gather information & present in different ways. Below are some of those different forms

Google Slides

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 08:46:21 UTC

Google slides is a presentation website/app, it's beginner friendly & easy to work in teams with. While it may not have the most features compared to other presentation focused apps, you can get a lot of milage out of it if you know what you're doing.

Google Docs

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 08:46:31 UTC

A very useful document website that has a ton of options. On the surface it's easy to use but the more specific features you may seek may need a guide to find. It has a lot of options, you just need to know where to look if you want to be more intricate with your document.

Google Forms

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 08:47:28 UTC

This is Google's version of survey's. It helps you easily collect data & can be used in tandem with Google Sheets.

Concept Maps

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 08:48:05 UTC

In concept maps/mind maps students can write down their thoughts that are centered around a topic. It's great way to have what they know all in one place, it can even include group members as well if allowed. Concept maps are meant to help you build connections with the smaller topics to the main topics. Helping you get more familiar with what is being learned. I used a mind map website called Mindomo last semester. it's somewhat limited but it can get the job done. It helped me study for exams in the math classroom 7 solidify what we learned in there. I could also pull it up for future reference if I would want to.

Google Sheets

kuhiguer — 2025-04-19 09:13:16 UTC

Google Sheets is a place where you can organize different kinds of data, or create spreadsheets. It's a great way to stay organized & display information clearly.