Technology Reflection

Throughout this assignment, I learned many things varying from teamwork to lesson planning, to

Ozobot, and incorporating technology into the classroom. First, I learned about my little robot, Ozobot.

Ozobot is a desk color-coding robot used in the classroom to promote learning and creativity. There are

an infinite amount of ways that Ozobot can be used in a lesson from mazes to bowling, to race tracks, and

so much more. After learning about my robot, I learned more about TPACK, The Technological

Pedagogical Content Knowledge, which is the knowledge educators need to incorporate technology in the

classroom successfully. We took this idea and helped us it in our lesson planning, which I also learned

more about. I learned that there are multiple components in lesson planning, like, lesson overview,

learning standard, lesson objective, assessment plan, support for diverse student's learning needs,

instructional task, strategies, and materials. Before this semester, my knowledge of what goes into lesson

plans was limited, thinking it was mainly the objective and plan, but since then I have learned so much

more. Including things like support for diverse student's learning needs could make or break your lesson

success-wise. Lastly, I learned about collaboration in the education field. Being able to depend on

someone, bounce ideas off of them, work together, and create a successful lesson plan was eye-opening to

how important collaboration is.

Right now, the most effective recommended strategies include visual aids, hands-on,

differentiated learning, and so on. Our lesson met all of these aspects. Our Ozobot was our visual aid as

well as our hands-on aspect of the lesson. Students were provided with an Ozobot maze activity using

our repeated addition and multiplication equations, as well as a color coding sheet that correlates with the

answers. After students have answered each equation they would color in the corresponding boxes to each

answer. When all of those steps were completed, Ozobot was ready to go through the maze. The

differentiated learning aspect of our lesson was that we allowed students to work in pairs or individually

based on their personal needs, for students at a different readiness level to use their notes. We also

allowed students to solve the problems using any method they would like, not just the standard algorithm.

All of these aspects worked together to be a worthwhile task for our students. In our textbook, Van De

Walle said, “A key component of the third-grade curriculum is to help students develop operation sense
 Technology Reflection

with respect to multiplication and division. This sense-making means facilitating students’ connecting the

different meanings of multiplication and division to each other, as well as connecting to addition and

subtraction. Operation sense supports students’ effective application of these operations in real-world

settings” (Van De Walle,2017, pg 166). With our lesson, students would write equations, multiple ways

to demonstrate understanding and use tools, drawings, or models to represent mathematics in a way that

enhances their learning.

Using technology in this project was a major help in getting the lesson across. If we had provided

students with just the maze, they may have been engaged but I think Ozobot is a visual, hands-on

technology that will draw kids in. Not only are they learning about math when provided with Ozobot, but

they are also learning about color coding and how it works. Another advantage to using this technology in

our lesson was how Ozobot would show the students when an equation was wrong when going through

the maze. While doing the Ozobot maze, if they do not get an answer correct, the Ozobot will not be able

to complete the maze. This will show students they are incorrect and need to redo the equation.

Our lesson plan related to TPACK because the technology is Ozobot and we first introduced it

through our lecture portion. We then explained it to the students and how it is used. We also showed them

a video demonstration first and then demonstrated in person how to use it. After explaining the activity,

we will have students work in small groups and work together to set up and/or solve the

multiplication/repeated addition equations. While they were working, we walked around and ensured they

were working collaboratively and that they understood how to use the technology, and that they

understood the math concepts.

For myself, after this experience, I strive to learn about more technologies like Ozobot, or even

online technology tools, so that I can incorporate them into my lesson plans and classroom. As well as

this, I strive to learn more about planning a successful lesson, collaboration-wise and on my own.
 Technology Reflection

References

Karp, Karen S., et al. “Developing Strategies For Addition and Subtraction

Computation .” Elementary and Middle School Mathematics Teaching Developmentally,

Pearson, Harlow, England, 2023, pp. 166.