The Influence of Technology
technology pervades our everyday life, from our ovens and videodisk players to supermarket scanners and “surfing the Net.” Computerization 15 replacing nearly every mundane facet of the workplace. The calculator and the particular have had major effect on school mathematics in three significant ways.
First, the calculator and the computer have drastically reduced the importance of low-level computational skills. It remains critically importance that all students master basic facts such as 12 - 7 or 6 x 8 These facts assist in mental computations, estimations and many aspects of numeric reasoning. But long and tedious computations are simply obsolete.
Second, the calculator and computer provide new instructional approaches to significant ideas. Activities have and been designed with simple calculators that assist children in developing basic ideas about numbers such as place relationships between fractions and decimals and the relative magnitudes of numbers. Estimation skills, mental mathematics, and even drill of basic facts can be enhanced by the calculator. Contrary to persistent beliefs held try parents and some teachers, there is after hundreds of studies over two decades, no evidence that calculators have a negative effect on basic skills or concepts. Quite the opposite is true. The calculator is a powerful teaching tool.
Third, technology has changed what we are able to teach. This is especially obvious in the upper grades. The graphing au he calculator and computer software now easily perform calculation, do tedious statistical procedures, and accurately draw, measure, and manipulate all manner of geometric other