Over the past semester, we have been involved with many projects. Students have been busy working on mastery of the state standards through class work, homework, common formative assessments and benchmarks. They have been doing a great job of demonstrating proficiency with their grade level work.
As a result, I have been looking for ways to help them explore the mathematics we have been learning in deeper and more meaningful ways. There are many different media available to us to help make this a reality.
Last year, I was introduced to the Smart Board. Many of you saw this at Back to School Night. The Smart Board allows one to project their computer screen to the front of the classroom and actually interact with the computer on the board itself. This has allowed us to demonstrate mathematical concepts in a much richer way than I ever imagined. The Smart tools also have a recording feature that allows one to record their interactions with the computer as well as their verbal instructions. This has allowed us to post examples on our school webpage. The feedback has been fantastic with over 16,000 visits to our webpage in less than one year.
While this technology is fantastic, it is limited. It only allows for one way interaction and is really not much different than reading a book or listening to a teacher. It is just “cooler.” I have always been searching for new ways to engage students and allow them to explore math in a more collaborative and creative way. I started a blog for students and one for parents this year. The blog allows for two way interaction. I can post a problem and students can comment and discuss possible solutions with each other. The blog has led to a wiki. If you haven’t visited our class wiki, I encourage you to do so. The wiki is basically a collaborative website. It is completely safe as there are security measures in place that only allow for “members” to comment and/or participate. Currently, the only members are students and staff. The wiki has allowed us to participate in truly collaborative projects where each student has to play a part in order to complete the assignment. We have also used the wiki as a class tool kit. This is where students can work together to create a comprehensive list of vocabulary, theorems and student made resources. These truly are exciting times.
The next step is now to allow students to create their own “screencasts.” I began using screen casts to create the examples you have seen online. Now it is their turn. It has been said that a student learns by doing. Now it is their turn to “do.” We are currently working towards loading software on the laptops that will allow the students to do computer based projects and record their work. We will be using screencast.com to store the students’ work. This will require each student to create an account and in order to do so, they must include an email address. If your student does not already have an email account, I can help them create one. If you would not like your student to have an email account, please indicate this on the bottom of the page.
Here is the list of resources we are using in class:
Class wiki
Class wiki
