Views on classroom technology

Last semester in my math class my professor introduced a program called Geometer's Sketchpad and I feel that program helped me learn and understand Geometry a lot better than what I had learned on paper in the past. The class took place in a computer lab so everyone had a computer to work on. The professor first introduced Geometry on paper and had us avoid using the computers so that way we could understand the general principles and not rely soley on the computer to figure out the answer. Once we understood the basics, we moved onto the computer and relearned everything that she taught us. It made learning Geometry so much simpler because I could draw the figures on the computer to scale and not have to worry about using a compass, protractor or ruler. I could also make duplicates of the shape and move the shapes around to fit without making a big eraser mess on my paper. The professor new a lot about the program and was able to answer any questions that students had. She also made the class fun by showing us how to draw interesting pictures using Geometer's Sketchpad and how Geometry is used everyday. Most of the class was able to understand using the computer and found this software to be very useful. I feel the way I was taught Geometry was very useful and worth my time. It does help to have a background in Geometry before you use the software because you can easily get the wrong answer to a problem if you don't know what you are doing.