Archive for tech4mathed

A Great Way to Answer Homework Questions

September 14, 2010 Helping students, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mathcast, online tools, Technology 3 comments

A student in one of my Algebra classes emailed me a screenshot of her online homework question:

The question, as you can see, is written horizontally, but she told me in her email that she thinks she would understand it better if she could see it worked out vertically.  So, I pulled out my Livescribe Pulse smartpen (which is never too far away) and quickly worked out the problem for her vertically and sent  her a link to the pencast on the Livescribe community page.

Here is the solution I sent her:

MultiplyPolynomialsVertically
brought to you by Livescribe


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My Latest Article for Livescribe: From Traditional to Innovative

September 9, 2010 CPS Clickers, Flash, Flash, Livescribe, Livescribe, Lumens DC265 Ladibug document camera, Math Projects, Mathcast, Mobi One comment

I was asked recently to write an article for Livescribe about the Math Foundations workshops  that were created by the team I was a part of this summer at Mesa Community College.    To read about the transformation of Mesa Community College’s Arithmetic course, the article I wrote is posted on the Livescribe Education Blog

The article contains a link to the new Math Foundations website that houses links to all the Livescribe pencasts, Flash animations and workshop handouts created by the team this past summer.   Check it out and let me know what you think!


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DropBox: An Incredibly Useful (and FREE) Tool!

August 24, 2010 online tools One comment

I rarely carry a USB drive any more, now that I have found Dropbox!  Not only is it a free online storage location, but it is cross platform as well!   I can store a file in dropbox on my Mac, then open the file from dropbox on my Windows machine, my iPad, and my Droid phone!   I have all my important documents accessible from anywhere (and yes, I do back them up offline, “just in case”).

I found out yesterday you can even share a folder inside your dropbox.   As an Ambassador for FableVision Learning, I received an invitation to share a folder that contained a “yearbook” of all the current Ambassadors.  We each have access to it and can edit our own contact information.   VERY slick!

To start your FREE dropbox account go to:  http://www.dropbox.com/ Once you open an account, there is a free app for the iphone, iPad, Android,  and Blackberry, as well as downloading the application to your Mac or PC!


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I Guess I Should Thank The Cat!

August 11, 2010 Bamboo Tablet and Pen, Intuos4, Mathcast, Technology 3 comments

Well, it is a good thing I love most animals! Yesterday morning when I went to check my email I noticed water all over my home office desk, where my Macbook and my Bamboo tablet were sitting. I had mistakenly left a full glass of water on my desk and the cat knocked it over during the night.

I quickly cleaned up the mess as best I could, found out the Macbook is fine (yay!!!!!), but the Bamboo tablet is still sitting in a pan of dry rice trying to revive it. I absolutely cannot live without a pen tablet, so I started researching between a few Wacom tablets (a name I already trusted with my Bamboo).

I was thinking about purchasing a larger tablet this time so I would have a bigger active area to write on.   At the same time, I was also considering going for a more sensitive tablet that would pick up angles of the pen, since I mostly use my pen for my hybrid math courses and I have issues writing naturally while trying to hold the pen vertical.

I narrowed my choices down quickly to look at the Bamboo Fun (for the larger area) against the higher end Intuos4 (small) because they both would cost the same price:

After looking at these figures and then going to the store and seeing that the footprint for the Bamboo fun was far more room that I had available on my desk, I decided to purchase the Intuos4 (small).  An added bonus I found out was that the small Intuos4 still has a larger active area than my original Bamboo tablet (about 2.5 sq inches more!).

I got my new toy (uh, I mean tool) home, and it was incredibly easy to set up. I noticed a HUGE difference immediately in pressure sensitivity and how well it picked up everything I was writing (it even made my handwriting look better than writing on pen and paper!!).   The feel of the tip against the new pad was far more realistic as well, it felt just like writing on paper – only better!    I am SO glad I decided to upgrade to the Intuos4!   What an amazing difference it made; I can’t wait to make my next mathcast with it!!

So, I guess I should thank the cat for frying my Bamboo tablet, or I would not have needed to replace it for a very long time.   It had served me well for many years, and I am sure it would have lasted many more, if the cat hadn’t gotten involved!

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I Glogged my syllabus

August 3, 2010 Glogster, Mathcast, Teaching Online, Technology 2 comments

I created my first Glog ever!  I believe my students will have a lot of fun creating one as a project for my course.  In the same manner as I created samples of a mindmap, and a Prezi, I took my syllabus and turned it into a Glog for my students.

link to the glog

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Mapping out my syllabus

August 2, 2010 Helping students, Math Projects, mindmapping, Software, Teaching Online One comment

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, I am having my students rotate through creating several visual online tools to help them learn to better organize information and share with others.  In preparation for having them create a mindmap, I created one using MindMeister of the syllabus for my course!



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All with just 1GB!

August 2, 2010 Livescribe Comments Off on All with just 1GB!

My family bought me a 1GB Livescribe Pulse smartpen a little over a year ago (soon after they came out) and I LOVE IT!  I use it almost every day, mostly to help my students by creating online examples for them to use outside of class.  I also use my Pulse to answer student questions when they email me, panic-stricken in the evening, stuck on a homework problem.  The pencasts are a great way to quickly answer their questions and email them a link, in just a matter of minutes, rather than trying to respond by typing cryptic math steps back in an email.

A few months ago I showed the Dean of Instruction my smartpen and some of the pencasts I have created, and she purchased 4 for our department to start learning to use to help even more students outside of class, as well!   Then, my college’s Vice President asked me if he should purchase one, and of course I replied “Of course!”  He then purchased one for all of the administrative secretaries and invited me to come and set up their new Livescribe Pulse smartpens on their computers and teach them how to use them.  I spent most of the time focusing on the transcription software – they couldn’t believe what a timesaver it was going to be for them now that they no longer have to type in the notes taken by the Administration, they just have to check over the transcription of the notes!

Word is spreading quickly around my department, my college and my district!   All with just a 1 GB Pulse smartpen…just think of the incredible possibilities if I get a LIvescribe Echo!!

*This blog post was written to post on twitter in hopes I can win a Livescribe Echo Smartpen!!

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Presenting….my syllabus!

August 1, 2010 CPS Clickers, Livescribe, Lumens DC265 Ladibug document camera, Math Projects, Mathcast, Mobi, Prezi One comment

I have been spending the past few weeks trying to think of better ways to get my future teachers to be more engaged in their learning. I have decided to model several ideas after a great friend of mine who writes the amazing Teaching College Math blog, Maria Andersen.

Not only am I going to use hands on manipulatives and technology (like I have been) to teach with, but to help my students organize their thoughts and the material for the course, I am going to have them create a Prezi, a Wiki, a Blog and a Mindmap. One fourth of the class will be doing each of these for every test. Each student will rotate through the 4 types of online tools for every test (but not in the same order as the rest of their group). All students will also create a google website to house links to all of their creations and any notes or other information they want to add, along with their service learning journal. The website will be private and they will only share viewing privileges with me. The other 4 online components will be public and shared with the rest of the class.

I am hoping that not only will they have a better feel for the material in each quarter of the course, but it will be theirs to keep online and reuse the ideas and links when they become teachers. It will be helpful for them to study for each test because all 4 types of models will be created by the class for each test, and they will be able to use one another’s to help them study.

I decided I would model some of the types for the students, by creating my syllabus as a Prezi, and also in a mindmap format. (I will write a new blog entry when I finish my mindmapped syllabus).

I thought it would not be as helpful to show them the syllabus in Blog format (they can see this blog for ideas), and my syllabus is already on a website (just not a free google one). I am still contemplating whether to show an example of my syllabus as a wiki.

Here is the first pass at my syllabus as a Prezi:

Math156syllabus on Prezi *the Prezi is now having issues viewing…try THIS LINK

Copy of Math156syllabus on Prezi

I think I have narrowed it down to have them use the following free online tools:

Prezi (for a free online presentation style of tool)
MindMeister (for a free online mindmapping tool)
Glogster (for a free online fun poster tool))
Wordpress or Blogger (for a free online blog)

Google website for their free online website

I hope they are as excited as I am to learn these great tools and put them into “action”!


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Teaching with Manipulatives on the Web!

July 24, 2010 Lumens DC265 Ladibug document camera, Mathcast, Teaching Online One comment

Over the past few weeks I have used my Lumens HD 265 Ladibug document camera several times to show hands on materials (manipulatives) and activities online!

Here are a couple of examples of how I used it online:

Ex 1)    I taught an online session on how I teach with technology in my classroom.  One of the examples I used was to have all my students using fraction pieces while I taught with them from the front of the room.

So the students can see what I am doing with the pieces, the Ladibug document camera can show my hands moving the pieces live during class, projected onto the screen. (These still images and the video below were all taken by the Lumens DC265 Ladibug!!)

To demonstrate this to the participants online, I was able to share my desktop in the session, and show the document camera’s live feed running on my computer screen!

I was even able to toggle back and forth between the Ladibug document camera’s view, and the other programs I was running on my computer to teach the session!

Not only can you show what you are holding and teaching with live through the camera, but the Ladibug HD 265 also records video and audio!  Here is the same lesson above, but the video version, which I can now post online for students to see.

HalfPlusThirdblog

(Why won’t the blog let me embed an .mp4 file??)

Ex 2) I was creating a video for my students on how to use the graphing calculator.   I no longer need to capture the screen of the calculator using  special software!

I can show them which buttons to hit and the screen, all at the same time!

I can even zoom in on the screen so they can see a graph more clearly:

Or zoom in on the equation used to create the graph…

All of this can be done live during class, or I can record the calculator lesson directly from the Ladibug camera and then post the lesson to my website!

Above you can see the menu that “floats” on my desktop when I am using the document camera, making it very easy to switch to any other program or back to the document camera, also allowing me to zoom, take still images and video with the camera!

I can’t wait to teach my Math For Elementary Teacher’s class in a few weeks!  No more overhead projector, no more graphing calculator overhead…just the document camera to show all the manipulatives and the calculator both as I teach, and as online lessons for outside of class!

 

My Google Website From the ACTEaz Workshop

July 16, 2010 Animationish, Conferences, CPS Clickers, eInstruction Interwrite Workspace, Jing, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mathcast, Mobi, Presentations Comments Off on My Google Website From the ACTEaz Workshop

Today I gave a 3 1/2 hour hands-on workshop on teaching with technology, in Tucson, AZ

Looking at the screenshot of my website for the workshop above, you can see the major topics were:

  • Animationish (FableVision Learning)
  • Google websites
  • Jing (TechSmith)
  • Livescribe Pulse smartpen
  • Workspace (eInstruction – comes with the Mobi)

To see the full workshop, along with all the materials presented, you can visit my google website for the workshop. During the workshop I presented with the Mobi, and had the participants often answer questions using the CPS Pulse clickers (eInstruction).   It was really a lot of fun!

If you view the workshop website, to have it make more sense, scroll down on the HOME page to see the schedule and follow the links IN ORDER that are in the schedule.   When you make a google website, the side links are alphabetical, NOT in the order I presented them in!

The workshop was in a computer lab, so each participant was on a laptop.  My 13 (soon to be 14) year old son was my technical helper during the entire workshop, walking around helping anyone who had questions.  He also taught the part of the workshop on Animationish!   He did a fantastic job and I was very grateful to have him with me!  I hope he can help me during my 8 hour workshop I am giving in October!  🙂

 
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