Technology and Student Understanding in Mathematics

Advances in technology have made graphing calculators more readily available to high school students and reformed standards in New York State encourage the integration of technology as a tool to improve student comprehension. This is a case study of three students (a typical A student, a special education C/ D student and an unmotivated D/ F student) as they are introduced to graphing relations (functions and non-functions) with the assistance of the graphing calculator. The results of the study were ambiguous, neither fully supporting the use of technology nor refuting the use of technology. However, the study did provide a great deal of insight into how important the methods of introducing technology are to a successful implementation of technology