Separating Prime Cuts of Educational Technology from Common “Mystery Meat”
I will be presenting this summer at the Summer Institute in Olympia, WA. During my session, Math & Technology in Today’s Classroom, I’ll show how I use technology such as the electronic whiteboard, student response systems, software, mathcasts and video projects to promote student learning and achievement and for assessment (both formative and summative).
If you’d like to begin creating mathcasts and you use a Windows PC, then FreeScreenCast can make screencasting simple for you.
Just install the screencast recorder, select the part of the screen you want to record, record it, upload your screencast, and then share it. Give it a try!
I’m going to begin a book study soon of Using Technology with Classroom Instruction That Works. There are four math teachers in our department with Hitachi Starboards, Avervision document cameras, and eInstruction student response systems, and we are going to use this book as a catalyst for our discussions of ways to better utilize these technologies in our classrooms. I plan to post my comments and reactions here throughout our book study.
I am also purchasing Engaging the Online Learner. I’ll be teaching an online math course next year and am definitely looking for ways to make it an interactive experience; hopefully this book will give me some ideas for this.
With less than one week left in the first Interwrite Makeover™ video contest, Interwrite Learning is announcing today the five judges who will evaluate the submitted videos for the contest. The selected judges represent internet communities, education blogs and social networks. You can learn more at http://pattyoflynn.edublogs.org/2007/09/23/interwrite-learning-teachertube-contest/#comments .
Each judge will solicit feedback from within their communities to help them select which videos best meet the contest criteria:
· Effectiveness of demonstrating use of technology in the classroom
· The extent to which the entry demonstrates collaboration between the student(s) and teacher(s) in creating the video
· Overall creativity and spirit of the entry
Fifteen finalists will be announced on Friday, October 26, 2007, and the one final winner from each grade segment will later be announced on Tuesday, November 27, 2007. Each interactive makeover is valued at approximately $15,000, with a total of more than $50,000 in prizes to be awarded. Included in that is a celebration party for each winning entry’s entire school.
In Teching Out H.S. Math, Ben Licciardi has described Patty Papers as a “forward-thinking site” in ASCD’s EdBlog Watch. Ben is an information resource coordinator in ASCD’s Information Resource Center. Thanks, Ben!
Interwrite Learning has a contest open to all teachers and students who can creatively show how they are using (or would like to use) technology in the classroom. And the winners will receive a $15,000 classroom makeover! Visit the link to check out the details.
My classroom was featured in a recent article by Tamar Snyder entitled Social Networking: TheirSpace at Edutopia.org.
Please visit the link above to view the full article. You can also read the article in Edutopia Magazine.
Cathy at Engaging-Technologies.com has blogged about our mathcast featuring the use of our CPS student response system, aka “clickers”. Here is a bit about what she had to say:
Patty’s mathcast is a terrific example of using the verbal questioning mode in CPS along with your CPS chalkboard. I got a kick out of the giggles as the kids were writing with the chalkboard. It does take a little practice!
You can read the rest of Cathy’s post here.
I have been using CPS clickers by eInstruction for the past two years and can’t imagine class without them now. We use our clickers almost daily and have even begun incorporating them into our “live” class mathcasts; you can view an example here.
Here are some online resources that will help you get started with clickers or use them more effectively:
Waking the Dead describes the initial research by Rand Cuthrie and Anna Carlin of Cal Poly Pomona on the effectiveness of SRSs in higher education as they introduced student response systems to engage passive listeners in their college classes. What a great title! It certainly sums up one of the most powerful features of this technology, waking the dead. It’s definitely much more difficult for a kid to slide by and go unnoticed when their every response is noted and recorded (which DOES NOT mean graded, but that’s a different discussion).
When I began using my CPS student response system two years ago as a participant in the Sustainable Classroom Grant and have fallen in love with it. I started by writing 2-3 questions that I started class with each day. That was it, just 2-3 questions for each class period so that I made sure I was using it every day but yet it wasn’t too overwhelming with all the other technology I was learning to use at the same time. Times have certainly changed since then. Now I use it every day throughout the class period, I know how to import questions from Examview, and I feel so comfortable using it that I regularly use it to ask unplanned questions that come up during class.
In my constant search for new and better ways to use this technology, I have come across a few other sites all about asking good questions. Some focus on using student response systems in particular, but others are really just about asking great questions which I think this is a better way to learn to integrate technology - tech should SUPPORT GOOD TEACHING first and foremost.
Vanderbilt Center For Teaching: Student Response Systems discusses types of questions and activities that lend themselves to this technology. Great resource for all subjects and grade levels to get teachers thinking about how and why they ask questions.
The GoodQuestions Project at Cornell University has questions and preclass warmups for introductory calculus on their materials page
Asking good questions in the mathematics classroom by Maria Terrell of Cornell University is a great personal case study.
Math247.jot.com has good questions for calculus in both Examview and pdf formats.
Transforming Student Learning with Classroom Communication Systems describes how student response systems can transform the learning process and includes advice drawn from lessons learned through a decade of experience in teaching physics.
Enjoy!
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