Technology Troubles

While technology is usually a great thing, sometimes it can cause more of a headache than it's worth. Unfortunately, we've probably all been in a situation where we are counting on our technology to work, yet it let's us down. This happened to me just a few weeks ago.

Part of my job as a Club Softball officer at Xavier is keeping our website up to date. This includes posting our game schedule and results, pictures, stats, current information, etc. A few weeks ago, I had an account set up for me and was told that I could edit the website from any computer. However, when I tried on my Mac, it was ridiculously slow and wouldn't let me upload any pictures. (My computer usually isn't.) Since I was sitting with another officer at the time, I asked her to try on her Mac. Same problem. I decided that since I had a lot to do that night, I'd just try again later in the week. But of course, a few days later, nothing had changed. As a result, I went to the Club Sports office and tried to use the Mac there. This time, however, it worked perfectly. I'm still not sure why I had such problems on my personal computer, but now I know where to go when I need to update the website.

Modern Classroom Technology

FluidMath is a relatively new computer program that can be very beneficial in the classroom. It allows teachers and students to create graphs, tables and animations using their own handwriting on an iPad or Tablet. It also contains a slider feature that shows how different values change an equation. For example, by "sliding" across different values for a, b and c in the general quadratic equation, students can see how the graph stretches, shifts, flips etc. depending on which constant is changed. Additionally, FluidMath allows you to copy and paste equations and graphs into Word documents, making it very easy to produce homework assignments and tests. This program really brings math to life and is a great tool to help visual learners.