Engaging mathematics learners - Teaching through programming?

Engaging mathematics students is a challenge in any world, in particular an online world. Is is because the CONTENT of the core mathematics we teach is actually not that enagaging? So we need to dress it up? to SELL it with fancy interactives and flashy design? I still don't think the average kid will remember the algoritms in Algebra 1 or Algebra2 that we teach him 6 months later whether we do it the old fashioned way or with all these fancy Gimmicks that some equate to Engaging teaching. Yes I use them(TI Nspire activities, Explore Learning Gizmos, Flash files, etc) and I like them. BUT do they work any better? Research could probably be used to validate either argument I would presume. So we need to make these techniques "stick". But how do we do that when they see solve a quadratic equation in February and then again in June(the final exam)? Is it even important to make these skills Stick in today's "get it when u need it" world? I agree with Conrad Wolfram in a lot of ways - In that I think we do it all Wrong. For Example, why focus on the tedium of solving a quadratic equation by "completing the Square" when you could focus on the NEED to do it. IS there even a need to do it this way? I like the concept of teaching mathematics through programming. In fact I have learned so much MORE this past year about mathematics through using Exam View Assessment Suite and its use of algorithms to produce dynamic evaluation items. You know what I have thought about? Asking kids to do this as well. Yes - students creating their own dynamic evaluation items for review or to simply pass on for future classes or for future generations. I have been teaching 18 years now and this has been one of my enagaging years. And I am working with content that I have "run through my fingers" for years. I am engaged through "programming". Conrad Wolfram may have the answer.

Explorelearning.com Rocks!

Hi all, The more I teach Physics and Mathematics the more I appreciate the learning objects (Gizmos) made by Explorelearning.com. They are simply the best. My students love to use them. I used one to test my son's hearing tonight. I feel he has good hearing and this gizmo assured me that it was. But I did use it in a class today and I discovered a student with some hearing impairment. He could not hear below 500 Hz or above 8000 Hz. In fact I tested better than he did. But I have 2 pet peeves: 1. They don't make enough new content every year. 2. They don't sell their content separately for mobile or Learning Management Systems (such as D2L, Blackboard etc).

Desire 2Learn and its content manager.

I have used Desire2Learn as my Learning Management System (LMS) for the last five years. For four years prior to that it was the inferior product - WebCT. D2L has some pros and cons. For example the recent changes to the dropbox are fantastic. I absolutely love the way I can move easily from one student submission to the next. It flows so much easier. But I have a love-hate relationship with D2L’s Content Manager.

Tracking the use of elearning content is a lot like looking over the shoulder of a student in a regular face to face classroom. Content that is trackable, and in particular content that is Scorm Compliant (a topic for another day), adds a level of student accountability that was certainly missing in WebCT. However I don’t place all my content in the manager as I find the level of organization and structure to be frustrating. I do track meaningful items of a critical nature. We all have THAT class that a student should not miss. Thus I tag the unplugged Elluminate Live (soon to be BB collaborate) recording as content and keep a close eye on some absent and underperforming students and their usage of that class recording. For example I recently had a sit down with 2 students in Physics 2204. Through a polycom conference I was able to share my desktop through polycom’s “people and content” add-on and I showed the principal and the 2 students their progress (or lack there of) with critical content inside D2L. The students were shocked but ALAS - the “jig was up”. The principal was also surprised at the level of detail of my tracking of content. But as I said I don’t tag enough content inside the content manager. I personally would like to see the quicklink feature updated similar to the recent changes with the placement of content inside the events calendar. Now that is a sensible way to do it. Kudos here Desire 2 Learn. But please clean up your quicklink feature in a similar fashion. It needs a drastic update. I would describe the content manager and quicklink tool now as “unwieldy.”

I also feel that another weakness in the content manager involves how content appears when viewed inside D2L. The screen real estate needs some added viewing flexibility. I like the idea of presenter view but how about a full screen mode similar to Youtube. Or even better - a fully scalable (slider) view mode similar to google earth. Now we are talking!

Don’t get me wrong, the D2L content manager is a faithful servant to me when keeping my students in line and accountable. In fact, it keeps me accountable as well. It is indeed an awesome feature. But it is one that can be improved upon by D2L if they continue to listen. And it seems they have done a fairly good job with that. Still I feel that Post secondary gets all the attention when designing improvements and enhancements. I feel that what we do stretches the limits of D2L. I don’t think the higher education sytems in our Province tax the features of D2L as much as we do. Maybe Desire 2 Learn should start looking to smaller operations in K12 like us. But to be honest I think we do things with D2L that a lot of organizations are not doing. Lets see how this all unfolds. Interesting times! Interesting times!

Excited about NSpire CX

I am so excited about the new TI Nspire CX. I read the release notes today (for OS 3.0)and it combines so many elements of my wishlist. Its now got 3D and I can publish to interactives with "Publishview". Maybe I will rely less on Geogebra now. Still LOVE Geogebra though (Thanks Markus). I would like to have this handheld ASAP. I see this in the hands of my students next Fall - woo hoo.

But this handheld can hold traditional pedagogy to account. We need to revisit how and what we assess. Evaluation 2.0. (or 3.0 ) so to speak.

eT@lking: Math 2.0 interest group: A year in review

Recently listened to a recording of an elluminate Live Web Event hosted by Anne Mirtschin. Maria Droujkova, the founder of Math 2.0 interest group was the lead moderator for this event. Very eye opening and Provocative. Stay tuned for more.
I think I may have a distinct interest in this group.

T3 Conference in Seattle, Washington

Presented on Feb28th at the T3 conference in Seattle Washington. Rick Snow and I did a presentation on Implementing the Nspire in an Elearning Environment. Things went well but I would have liked more time for questions at the end.
I also would have liked more quantitative data to support the effect of using the Nspire handheld. Empirical evidence as such. I feel it has had a significant impact on student's understanding of transformations and various phenomena associated with sinusodial functions.

Elive - Elluminatti User's Regional Eastern Conference

Presented on Dec 4th at the Eluminate REC in MacMaster University. Rick Snow and I did a presentation on Virtual Labs to a large audience. While things went pretty well I feel the conference was geared towards higher education. We really need a forum/conference on K12 issues.
Rant #1: I am always amazed at how higher Ed and business people "poo poo" any innovation at the K12 education level. I always say to these naysayers that it is not WHAT we do but "HOW" we do it that would be of interest to you. Time to take a look at what we are doing people. You may be missing something that could be of value to you.