Technology in Mathematics and Science tackled two subjects that are given great importance in education. Like ETEC 532, it focused on technological integration in a narrow subject area. Science and Math make up half of the much-touted STEM subjects with Technology and Engineering making up the other. ETEC 533 explored the implications of introducing technology into the teaching of Math and Science from a educational and a cognitive psychology perspective. The most recent research was drawn upon to conduct investigations into the efficacy of a collection of methods. Our assignments compelled us to interact with the theoretical and research findings and apply them to products that could be useful to educators in the future. An observant Samurai cannot be in service to a master without picking up something of his trade. 

Artifact #1: Virtual Educational Technology Tutorial
​Our BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) tutorial was a comprehensive guide for teachers and administrators interested in implementing a BYOD policy in their school. A PDF of our project proposal can be read, if you like. 
Through this project  learned that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to technology integration. In our case, we proposed that there are a number of benefits to allowing students to bring their personal devices to school to be used in educational activities. What on the surface seems like a solution to underfunded classrooms, proves to be an enormous administrative and policy undertaking. However, our team brought together the literature, theory, and resources needed to inform and equip staff and decision makers for this worthwhile venture. 

Artifact #2: Final Analytic Reflection Paper
This is my final assignment of ETEC 533. In this essay I reflect upon all I have learned from the various discussions, projects, and assignments. I do this by answering these three questions: 
1. What has this course taught me that I will utilise in my own educational practice? 
2. How does technology and research inform the study of education? 
3. What are some areas of research that I would like to continue to find out more about?
By the end of the course I have recognised the important role that research plays in decisions about technology integration. There is much that cognitive psychology, computer science, and education has to add to discussion about effective pedagogy through technology in Math and Science. 

Reflection:
The SmartBoard represented a big change in the classroom in between my leaving school to my returning as a teacher. I immediately loved it. I could save my lessons, record lessons, record student responses, and, perhaps best of all, I could undo and redo to go back over steps. This technology made teaching many subjects more efficient. Bu as we explored in ETEC 533, it is not enough to simply put the technology into the class and switch it on. The tool needs to be integrated into the lesson in a meaningful and productive way. Once again in the MET program, relevance became a keyword. Why would you be using the technology if not to further an educational goal? Technology is not an end in and of itself. Math and science lend themselves naturally to augmentation with technology but I take care now to always consider the benefit that is being drawn from introducing a certain tool or method. If it is not furthering the educational goal it is wasting the student's and teacher's time. 

I am currently a primary teacher. People may think that math and science at this level is easy to teach because the concepts are simple. The concepts are simple, indeed, to a logical and reasonably well informed adult but at this level the students are regularly confronting the ideas for the first time. It is easy to forget the conceptual leap needed to understand the ones, tens, and hundreds place or to comprehend images of the microscopic world. I still find it challenging to scaffold at the right pace to bring a child along the path to comprehension. Even more so when trying to utilize the latest tools available. Thankfully, there are plenty of communities of learning like the ones cultivated in the MET program through Black Board and other outlets. These online communities are vital to the success of modern teachers, particularly if they are not receiving the support they require for technology integration from their schools. 
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These ideas of community and purpose of technology integration was tied together nicely in ETEC 533. The community was cultivated through discussion, collaboration, and constructive critiques. I was tasked with critiquing the tutorial of my peers. It was about Smart Boards. It had a wealth of resources for teachers that was instantly useful for me. We see, again, the relevance. The activity used for assessment in this course was actually relevant outside the shell of the program, in the real world. I hope that our tutorial was equally relevant to others and I will endeavor to create like projects for my own students in the future. 

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