mybloggy

Web based Blackboard

Peter — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:32:00 +0000

It appears that Blackboard has put a patent on their method/system and does not allow others to reproduce a system combining the applications they have without paying for it. It is remarkable that this can be done. Web2.0 applications are being created for individual applications all the time. I would have thought just simply putting them together in one package should not give them a right to stop others from doing the same thing. Other websites have storage of data files for a price also. Looking for a free one, any reader know of any?

Where to from here?

Peter — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:38:54 +0000

The educ4105 course has now been completed and I ask where can this site go from here? How could it benefit my students and myself as a teacher?

I could post homework and other events that are coming up, like a noticeboard.
Actual homework activities and math websites to visit could be posted making maths interactive for students at home.
Students off sick could see what has been taught for the day, making it easier to catch up.
For new topics that will be taught there are prior skills that students will need to have learnt. Websites or other set activities can be posted for students to brush up on these before the new topic begins, thereby saving time for the teacher.
As a noticeboard could be a very useful tool for comunicating with parents, as I understand that parent involvement wains as students progress from primary to high school.
It could be used as a resource site for likeminded teachers to share lesson ideas.

Mmm, good to mull over and consider the possibilities. Does the reader have any thoughts on this? Comments are welcomed.

Excel and Dynamic Geometry

Peter — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:34:29 +0000

Advantages:

Most all students would be familiar with the excel program
It is easy to use
It can be up/downloaded easily
Students can analysis large amounts of data quickly

Disadvantages:

Would be time consuming if some students were not familiar with the program and training was needed. Some students would find it easy to use while others would be beginner users
Schools would need computers available for all students to use
Limited facility to use it for anything more than number manipulation

Webquests – Advantages and Disadvantages

Peter — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:14:10 +0000

Webquests are computer lessons where students use the web to gain knowledge and complete tasks through utilising interactive websites

Advantages

Students are able to work through the webquest at their own pace
There can be lessons of different length duration that can be carried over from lesson to lesson
There should be enough scaffolding for students to work independantly of the teacher
Most lessons involve working in groups so students can work together, helpping one another as they progress
If designed well, student engagement can be at a high level
Students are becoming more familiar and even wanting and expecting lessons to be more technologically based.

Dissadvantages

To design an original webquest takes a lot of time for the teacher
Students will need access to computer facilities that may not always be available at all schools
Most webquests i’ve seen are of low order thinking where students just follow what theve been asked to do rather than think about what should happen or any decisions that could be made. My own webquest has asked students think and make a recommendation.

Week 12 – GRAPHIC CALCULATORS

Peter — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:00:01 +0000

What (if any) pedagogical benefits do you believe graphic calculators offer and why?

Graphics calculators have the benefit of doing multiple graphs, manipulating tables of data and solving multiple equations all quickly. This can save a lot of time for students who need these all done to gain understanding and an intuition about a topic.

Week 11 – INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS

Peter — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:48:34 +0000

What (if any) pedagogical benifits do you believe the interactive whiteboard offers and why?

Teaching mathematicics is involves communicating ideas and concepts. Some of these can be difficult with wordy explanations s or even blackboard diagrams. The interactive whiteboard can give understanding to ideas through easy manipulations on the whiteboard which would be difficult to do any other way. Also students seem to be more interested in the lesson simply because of the technology. These things have can increase learning of the students.

Geometer’s sketchpad evaluation – “Chords of a circle”

Peter — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:39:55 +0000

“Chords of a circle” This lesson would be suitable for the NSW syllabus for arc and chords and to see the relationship between chord lengths and angles. The benefit of using the Geometer’s sketchpad software in this lesson is that resizing of the circle, chords and angles are all done with the movement of the mouse. It is an easy way for students to visualise the relationships without having to draw a whole heap of diagrams. A little lenghy to originally set up but it wouldn’t be a problem if student were familiar with the program. Would be easier if students used a printed version to follow to set up the sketch. A big tick for visual learners.

How could the lesson be improved?

Are the instructions for the lesson clear?

Week 6 Readings

Peter — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:20:07 +0000

The English language contains terms of expression which on a simple surface level appear odd, however they make sense when the commonly accepted meaning is understood. Such an example is a river going “down” stream when it is flowing north which is generally thought of as going “up”. Similar examples exist within the mathematics world of expression, such an example is: which is smaller -1000 or 0.00001? Mathematics uses words from the English language and redefines them to describe a particular meaning, idea, or concept. So while English is used it has certain ulterior meaning, dependant upon the math context.

A problem that arises here is that students who are learning new a “maths language” are not yet familiar with the commonly understood meaning of specific terms. This results in students creating misunderstandings as they incorrectly apply their current understanding of “English Words” to “English Maths Words”.

Webquest Evaluation

Peter — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:54:33 +0000

The webquest “Buying your First House” http://questgarden.com/45/79/1/070120175316/ is about performing calculations to determine cost of buying a home with various options such as with or without a deposit and includes budgets for running a household. This is one of a collection of webquests at http://webquest.org/search/index.php

Efficiency Expert :This project is short and to the point and has clear outcomes

XXX The Affiliator : A single person could do this. It doesn’t require discussion or collaboration.

The Altitudinist : High level thinking is required as an analysis is required by students to determine the best options

The Technophile : While the font and colouring are not good, it does have useful links which all work ok.

Week 5 Reading

Peter — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:07:13 +0000

Lee has some innovative ways of engaging students regarding language use in mathematics. He believes that talking is essential for a learning classroom. Classrooms need to be physically set up to enhance discussions so that students can see and hear one another to allow increased understanding of concepts. Teachers benefit from students talking about the math ideas so that they themselves can know what the student’s level of understanding is. Teachers can communicate to students that getting a wrong answer is fine because it helps the teacher to assess what further learning is required. If the activities are engaging then students can support one another in their learning. To help students’ confidence to articulate their understanding, they can team up and work in pairs for an assigned time to think about their ideas, as time to think and reflect is essential for students to learn. An interesting method he has used is to have groups of students describe a Fibonacci sequence, Pythagoras and quadrilaterals. The class compares each groups definition and decides which one is best and they invariably choose the most general case with sufficient detail. This aids students ability to “talk mathematically”. Also they discussed percentages amongst themselves to make the relevant connections with decimals and fractions. Further they described and named their own functions such as the “Brochi Number Pattern”.

I would expect that Lee is an experienced teacher to do this successfully. It would take quite a lot of skill to ensure the discourse stayed on track to achieve the desired outcomes of the class. These methods, when done well, should enhance the student ability to communicate and think in a more mathematical way, that is, should increase students “Literacy” and “Numeracy”.

Maybe a good dialogue would be to describe in mathematical terms why this clip is not so http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDerqFGmwNI