EMERGING AND SUTURE TECHNOLOGIES

Identifying an Emerged Technology

Graphing CalculatorTI-84 Plus

The advanced technology brings increasingly changes in educational technology, generating emerging technologies that offer individuals new opportunities for effective and efficient task completion (Thornburg, 2009).  The available technologies encompass inexpensive, hand-held calculators through expensive multimedia workstations, in mathematics education.  Technology is available to support mathematics instruction in technology-rich laboratories with modern workstations and teacher workstations with projection capability.  One such low-end emerged technology is the graphing calculator Texas Instrument (TI) 84-Plus (http://education.ti.com/en/us/products/calculators/graphing-calculators/ti-84-plus/tools-for-teachers/ti-technology-rewards-program).

The TI-84-Plus graphing calculator serves as a motivational tool to students and its uses facilitate students’ mathematical computations and some problem solving techniques (Lyublinskaya & Tournaki, 2010), as TI E2E^TM Community revealed and McLaughlin (2013) depicted in his blog. Blog

Dr. Steven McLaughlin

 The Center for Technology in Learning

TI-Navigator System

SRI International (2012) conducted a study on computer algebra system (CAS) graphing calculators TI and networked graphing calculators (TI-Navigator system), and found that the new technology spurred new theoretical, methodological, and design frameworks for engaging classroom learning.  These hand-held mini computers provoke and support highly interactive and group-centered capabilities of a new generation of classroom–based networks.

Although some individuals had knowledge about innovations, they lack understanding and insight about the process of change, which drive successful change (Fullan, Cuttress, & Kilcher, 2005).  Thus, rather than technology, people might constitute other barriers to the diffusion process, evoking lack of money. To diffuse any technological innovations in the mathematics classrooms, the scholar of change would think of students, and teachers’ perceptions on the attributes (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability) of the innovation that influences its adoption and diffusion (Rogers, 2003), citing scholarly works and presenting the video below.  The change agent might educate stakeholders on the uses of the new technology in terms of its applicability and reliability (Webster & Jeong-Bae, 2012), and be proactive in the decision-making.

References

Fullan, M., Cuttress, C., & Kilcher, A. (2005).  8 forces for leaders of change.  Journal of Staff Development, 26(4), 54-58,64.  Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/211518218?accountid=14872
Lyublinskaya, I. and N. Tournaki (2010).  Integrating TI-Nspire technology into algebra classrooms:  Selected factors that relate to quality of instruction Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference San Diego, CA, AACE.
Rogers, E. M.  (2003).  Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.).  New York, NY:  Free Press.
The Center for Technology in Learning SRI International.  (2012).  Algebra N-spired research study phase 2:  Final report.  Retrieved from http://education.ti.com/en/us/research/research_navigator/quantitative-studies
Thornburg, D. D.  (2009).  Current trends in educational technology.  Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.
Webster, T.E., & Jeong-Bae, S.  (2012).  Implementing proactive maintenance policies to address problems with access to technology at Korean universities.  International Journal Of Pedagogies & Learning, 7(2), 109-121