ICT Integration in Mathematics

***** The author is Teacher at Pampanga High School

The attention span of this generation just seems to become ridiculously shorter, and every teacher can prove that to be true. More and more students also have a distinct hatred for Mathematics, and every Math teacher can prove that to be true as well. So combining the students’short attention span and annoyance for numbers would make a Math class one of their least favorite periods on a regular school day. But Math teachers all over the world already have found ways to turn things around and will continue to do so.

From tangible counters to laugh-inducing games, learners of all ages discover that Math is surprisingly interesting and can even turn out to be fun. And for this tech-savvy generation, learning could not get any better when infused with technology. For the past years, educators have done their best to keep up with their students’newfound skills in handling the constantly changing and improving technology, and this gave birth to the concept of the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the teaching and learning process.

Could ICT integration also improve learning in Math? Definitely. We are not only talking about making it fun for the students, but integrating ICT also increases the effectiveness of teaching and the quality of learning. Gone are the days that the students needed to manually find the mean, median and mode of test scores of imaginary classes and go back to square one after missing or mistyping one digit from the array of scores. From simple spreadsheets that make more accurate calculations to computer programs that provide computations of statistics in a blink of an eye-ICT integration has made problem - solving easy as pie. And this is only one of the numerous ways of how beneficial ICT integration is in every classroom.

But despite the countless advantages of integrating ICT in teaching Math, its effect on the teaching and learning environment largely depends on the teacher’s skill in using ICT as a tool. ICT integration is an inevitable part of educating this generation, so this must be part of the professional development to be provided not only to Math teachers but to every educator in any field. Most of all, it mainly comes down to accessibility. Both teachers and students ought to have access to various multimedia tools and equipment to begin with; otherwise, none of the benefits of ICT integration would be feasible at all.

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The author is Head Teacher III at Bonifacio V. Romero High School Angeles City