As part of all initial licensure requirements in NC, all students must demonstrate competence with the standards set forth by the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers. Part of this competence will be demonstrated throughout this course by producing a portfolio with artifacts of evidence. You will also have a portfolio due at the end of the professional semester (the semester you complete student teaching) that will include several technology related artifacts.  Some of the portfolio artifiacts may be used as a portion or great beginnings as artifacts in your student teaching portfolio so be sure to save them.

Your EMS480 portfolio is required to be in electronic format.  The FINAL portfolio could be organized any of the following ways:

• a series of well-structured and linked web pages.  Click here to view a tutorial for how to do this using Netscape.  These webpages could be live on your personal server space, or on a disk or CD-ROM for local delivery.
• a series of well-structured Word documents and files (e.g., GSP or Excel files) with a Word document containing a table of contents with hyperlinks linking the documents and files together in a logical manner. These documents should be saved on a disk or CD-ROM for easy navigation. Click here to view a description about how to insert a hyperlink in Word documents.
• A CD-ROM or disk that contains Word documents and files (e.g., GSP or Excel files) organized in a series of folders.  If you choose this option, you must also have a Word document that contains a table of contents with descriptions and folder names where every artifact can be found.

You will be completing and submitting different parts of the portfolio throughout the semester to get feedback. The final portfolio with all parts packaged together will be due at the end of the semester.

Your portfolio must contain the following elements:

i.     Table of Contents with brief description of each artifact and a link to the file
ii.     Opening Reflection (2 pages) for your portfolio that gives a rationale for why the elements of this portfolio exemplify your professional growth throughout the semester. Be sure to consider issues of your own mathematics understanding, capabilities in using technology tools, and developing a deeper understanding of how technology can help or hinder students' mathematical understanding.

I.     Investigating Mathematics with Technology and Planning for Instruction
Three  artifacts that explore the three major content areas discussed in this course (Geometry, Algebra, Statistics/Probability) and demonstrate your competence in using THREE different technologies (e.g., graphing calculators, Excel, GSP, java applets, Fathom, Probability Explorer, CBL or CBR). In each artifact you need evidence in three areas:    

1) a description of a mathematical investigation and how you used technology to explore the mathematical topic to enhance your own understanding (including appropriate screenshots).
2) a 1-2-page reflection on how using the technology tool in your investigation helped or hindered your conceptual understanding, and
3) UNDERGRADUATE: a 1-2-page reflection on how using technology tools could help or hinder students' understanding of the mathematical content area (Algebra, Geometry, Statistics/Probability) in which your topic is situated
    GRADUATE: a 3-page paper synthesizing your experience with this technology and content area with at least 2 research articles on learning this content with technology tools (e.g., for an investigation of functions with the graphing calculator, you could read and synthesize 2 articles about students' understanding of functions and whether technology affected that understanding).  Appropriate APA citations and references expected. 

II.     Review of Technology Tool
An important aspect of being an informed technology-using teacher, is to make decisions about the appropriateness of various technologies for use in your classroom. You need to choose a technology to review (suggested technologies) and write a 3-page report on your review. Be sure to include the following:

•  Identify the technology, availability, and ordering information (if applicable). Include a general description of the purpose and target audience for the technology.
• Identify the NC Mathematics Curriculum objectives and NCTM content and process standards that students would learn by using this technology.
  
• Describe the technology and associated written material. How well does it work? Are the written materials well organized and useful? What are the purposes and goals for using this technology? Does the technology reach this goal?  Is the technology relatively easy to learn how to use? Does this technology enhance or extend the teaching and learning process for the intended mathematics concepts? How and why? Would you recommend this product for purchase to a school? Why or why not?
• Include at least 1 screenshot of the technology.

An annotated list of websites that can be used for resources for teaching and learning a particular mathematics topic (e.g., pythagorean theorem, quadratic functions, derivative). This list must have at least 10 websites with 2-3 sentences describing the site contents/purpose/goals. It is helpful if this list of websites is focused on the mathematics topic that you are developing for your course project.

IV. Applying Professional Knowledge in the Classroom
    UNDERGRADUATE: Write a 2-page paper that describes specific examples of how you could weave EACH of the six Technology Foundation Standards from NETS into your mathematics classroom.
    GRADUATE: Write a 2-3 page paper that describes specific ways you would integrate technology in mathematics teacher education courses or professional development such that other mathematics teachers would be prepared to use technology in appropriate ways in their classroom.  Support your suggestions with references to teacher education research and the NCTM Principles and Standards.

NOTE: You may NOT use content from your course project as part of your electronic portfolio

The final portfolio will be submitted at the end of the semester and must include a Table of Contents and Opening Reflection with links to each of the sections above.  This portfolio is a professional document to illustrate your best work, growth, and knowledge in teaching mathematics with technology.