Teaching Tech

By Matthew Brent

Ever thought teaching Mathematics could be fun? Well it’s no joke. Mrs Louw, as her students will know, has taken teaching Mathematics to a new level. Ever dreamt of being taught on a computer? Well, we’re one step closer to that becoming a reality.

In her Mathematics class Mrs Louw has a data projector in her classroom that projects her iPad onto a screen. This is then used as a whiteboard. The first time Mrs Louw touched an iPad she says: ‘I knew had to have one. I use an application called Noteshelf that I can easily write on.  This is a must have for teaching Mathematics, because keyboards don’t have a Pi button.’

Not only is this really cool, but it is cost effective and environmentally friendly.

This setup costs around At R2, 000 for a decent projector, R3, 500 for the iPad 2, and a little more for a special tipped pen. You can’t write on your iPad with any old pen.

Costs and environment savings come from not having to use whiteboard markers. On an iPad, you can write forever, and ever, and ever, with no extra or hidden costs.  You don’t have to buy markers and you have a million colours to pick from. This begs the question, is it stupid not to swap over to an iPad? Keep in mind that iPads never run out of ink. The only juice they do need is kept in a battery that’ll last for days.

Not only is this a board, but it’s a board that remembers what was on it yesterday. The slide of a finger you can store thousands of pages of work, so you never need to rewrite it for another path of students. If you’re having a sick day, you’ll receive your work emailed straight to you from class, so you need never miss a thing.

The interface of the application that Mrs Louw uses is user friendly and it is nearly idiot proof! With an iPad you can show different types of media in the classroom.  For example, you can Google an example in class and see if you can solve it, this keeps things interesting.

It doesn’t end there. Have you been working hard and deserve a reward? Well you can YouTube some “Math jokes” and enjoy a lesson filled with laughs.

Apple is always innovating, so if Mrs Louw likes the iPad 3, she can move all her info straight to her new iPad. What if she needs all her information on the move? Well, Notepad will also be fun on an iPhone.  And so, with Eskom’s cooperation, let there be knowledge!