Geogebra is a dynamic mathematics software and I have used it previously to create drawings and diagrams for my lesson plans.  But inspired by this post with a geogebra widget on parts of a circle, I spent a little bit of time exploring the geogebra wiki and realised how easy it is to create simple interactive worksheets.  I recently taught parts of a circle to a Year 8 class whilst on prac.  I gave out small sheets of paper with a circle drawn on it so students could draw in and label the various parts of the circle as we went through it together on the whiteboard.  Using a widget like the one included in the post above, the students could have played with it and taught themselves. 

I knocked up an interactive worksheet in just a few minutes (literally) that could be used by students to explore Pythagoras’ thorem.  (I would attach the file here if I could figure out how . I can’t even manage to get a screenshot in). This has definitely motivated me to play around with Geogebra a bit more and extend my current capabilities.

I was fortunate to attend the 3rd International LAMS conference held in Sydney on 5th December 2008.  In particular, I was really impressed by the presentation by Jarrod Johnson & Peter Cheel from Pedare Christian College.  Jarrod & Peter presented two sessions both of which were very interesting.

• The first was about how they used LAMS to scaffold the Personal Project that each student is required to work on over the course of a year as part of the International Baccalaureate program.  The LAMS sequence guides the students through the various stages of the project – and serves both as a planning tool for the students and an oversight tool for the instructors.
• The second session was about an online course (on forensics) designed to accommodate students who were unable to attend the regular classes due to schedule clashes. An interesting idea floated by Jarrod in this session was the notion of students enrolled in one school being able to take online courses offered by other schools.  This type of arrangement if implemented will allow schools to share scarce teaching resources and be able to offer a wider range of courses than they would be able to on their own.

As beginning teachers, it will be important for us to build and maintain a network of relationships. This will help us keep connected to others who have similar interests/values to us in relation to education.   I am particularly conscious of this as the time nears for us to all leave university and begin our fledgling new careers.

I found the last lecture session from the lady at EDNA very useful and decided to check out what they have to offer.  Here is a link to my profile on EDNA http://me.edu.au/p/madhu.  It links to this blog and on early inspection, does look like a useful way to build a professional online profile.

Just read this news item in the NY Times about a firm that offers online math courses to American school students.  A typical example of use of technology for objectivist teaching (refer chapter by Robyler).  Reading the article made me wonder why “drill and practice” style programs (like the one described) manage to get such good press.

Programs such as the one described in this article can easily be shown to get results (ie improved scores in traditional tests). Paul’s blog points out there haven’t been too many studies to prove the effectiveness of constructivist teaching approaches – I think the reason must lie partly in the fact that our assessment methods are still rooted in objectivist frameworks (at least in mathematics).

A conundrum that will no doubt face us as beginning teachers!

 References

Roblyer, M.(2006). Learning Theories as Bases for Integration. In M. Roblyer (Ed). Integrating educational technology into teaching.  4th Edtn. pp 36-52. Pearson/Merrill Prentice HallUpper Saddle River, N.J.

I just read an interesting article in today’s Washington Post about how some schools in the US are using internet-based classroom portals to provide information to students and parents on student progress and assessment outcomes as also information on assignments that need to be completed.  For parents it provides a connection to their children’s academic life – a connection that diminishes when the children move to high school.  This would also ensure that parents receive ongoing reporting on their children’s progress at school rather than the once/twice a year written report.

The prac. school I was at already maintained online markbooks. All that would be required would be to enable secure access to students’ records to only those authorised (carers, teachers, student themselves). 

Grandmother’s report card http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriabernal/2289482819/  Made available under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence

In response to Maree’s blogpost,

• We definitely need student teachers to be exposed to a range of technology tools and provided with opportunities to think about and experiment with various ways of using these in the classroom (similar to what we are currently engaged in as part of this course). If we have tried something at uni, we are more likely to use it in our teaching.
•  On an ongoing basis, we need to keep abreast of new tools/ technologies and their potential for use in an educational setting.  We could do this in a variety of ways – we could actively seek out information by subscribing to blogs of interest, reading, networking with like-minded peers etc.  Traditional professional development courses are also an option but likely to be behind the curve?

I just read an interesting article by Prensky (if you can ignore the repeated references to teachers who “look stupid”). He makes a valid point that technology is changing so rapidly that just as we think we’ve mastered a new technology, it may have already become outdated.  So rather than asking for training on some new technology (who does anyway? arent we all self taught on the things we do use?), we’d be better off learning from our students or letting them use the technology while we provide “evaluation, context and nuance to help the kids truly understand” (which we should already know how to do as teachers).

One of his examples: to use podcasting in our teaching we do not need to know how to podcast.  Students already know how (or can teach themselves and each other how to).  So we get the students to make a podcast and our job as teachers then is to listen to these podcasts, evaluate them and provide feedback to students on appropriateness of content.

Hmmmm…. Maybe.

The above approach wouldnt work for something like LAMS, where the teacher needs to “author” or create a lesson sequence for the students.  So teachers would need to get familiar with LAMS, if they are to use it in their teaching.

Also, even with things like podcasting or voicethread, whilst I agree that we do not need to become the “resident expert” in order to use it in our teaching, we do need to be familiar enough with it to be able to assess the possible uses for it in our lessons.  In that sense, we do need to keep ourselves updated with the new developments to the extent that we know what is out there and how it can be used.

Yesterday in class, Paul presented the use of comic book creating software (he used software from PLASQ, but there are others available too; unfortunately, I didnt find any that are free) to present mathematics content in comic book format as a way of engaging disengaged students.  What a fantastic idea!

I think the idea has great potential!  Think of asking students to create their own summary of a topic in comic book format.  If playing with technology or creative writing is their thing, this would tap into their interests and get them learning mathematics content at the same time. Their creations could be showcased and shared online with other students and the larger school community.  Thanks for the idea, Paul.

As I read more about technology in education – I am both excited and a little intimidiated by the possibilities.  Listen to my podcast. podcast2410

In my travels on the web, I came across this interesting blogpost that talks about mathcasts.  Essentially, a mathcast is a screen recording + voice from an interactive whiteboard.  There are some examples on the blogpost.

It is easy to see how such mathcasts can be very useful for students who may have missed a lesson or for students to use when reviewing previously learnt material before an exam.  Specially, for mathematics, where it is important to be able to see the working and/or setting out of a solution.

If we have the technology in the schools we work in, I’d love to try out mathcasts.  I can already picture how I could pre-record my lessons for when I am away on holiday