Archive for Mathcast

My Customer-Story Video for Livescribe

November 17, 2010 Bio, Helping students, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mathcast, published articles, Teaching Online, Technology 2 comments

I was asked by Livescribe if I would give my testimonial as a college instructor using the Livescribe pen for my math classes.   I had so much fun making the video with the team!

Amazing how they can shrink 2 hours of  “discussion” (with many retakes I might add!) into a minute and a half of produced video!

They interviewed 7 people in different professions to show how each of us enhances our work with the help of our Livescribe smartpen.

To see all 7 videos, go to the Livescribe Home Page and click on my photo on the bottom of the page.  (OK, I share the photo with three other people, but I made the home page!)

I still own my original 1 GB Pulse and now the new Echo smartpen, and I am so thankful for having such great technology to teach with!  I am also finding great ways to use my smarpens in  everyday life, too!

Here is my Livescribe Story posted on YouTube:


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Staying Tuned!

October 9, 2010 feedback, grading, Helping students, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mathcast Comments Off on Staying Tuned!

Last week I read an article (and podcast) on Livescribe’s educational blog (Applications in Education) that is very exciting and I believe will really transform helping students.   There were two parts to the article, the first focused on using technology in education, and the second part was more focused on the Livescribe smartpen and notetaking.

The entire article and podcast was amazing, but the part that REALLY caught my eye was at the very bottom of the article.  I have highlighted it in green below…

Are you confused as to why it would be exciting to be able to print off the special dots on the livescribe paper combined with ANY other document?   As a teacher, I see this as an amazing opportunity to give my students feedback on a whole new level!   Papers can be graded on the dot paper with the livescribe pen, and the students will be able to hear and see the feedback, rather than just read a few comments that the teacher put down to show corrections.  I am sure there will be many more applications of this incredible feature, but I need to play with it first to get more ideas.

Let’s just say I am certainly “Staying Tuned!”

*If you have read an article or have used an amazing product that helps you as a teacher, please send me information about it.   I would love to find more incredible teaching tools to use and blog about!

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Mobile Whiteboards, Smartpens and Bloom’s Taxonomy

October 3, 2010 Conferences, eInstruction Interwrite Workspace, Group Work, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mathcast, Mobi, Presentations, Pulse smartpen, Student participation, Technology, Training Comments Off on Mobile Whiteboards, Smartpens and Bloom’s Taxonomy

What do mobile whiteboards, smartpens and Bloom’s Taxonomy have in common?   A great all-day workshop teaching high school teachers, and their students who are in a teacher education program, how to use mobile whiteboards and smartpens through the use of a hands-on project that focused on Bloom’s Taxonomy!

We started the day learning about Hybrid versus Blended teaching models, and then I introduced the Mobi, a mobile interactive whiteboard made my eInstruction.

Next up was a discussion about Bloom’s taxonomy.

Then, to get them ready to do their first project, we played “Blooms Taxonomy According to  Pirates of the Caribbean”:

I introduced them to the Livescribe Pulse smartpen and another colleague showed them how to draw stick figures so they could create a cartoon based on the pop culture area of their choice for the Bloom’s Taxonomy level their group was in charge of.

They had a great time creating their first cartoon strip and adding sound with the Livescribe Pulse smartpen!   After lunch I gave them a lesson on using the Mobi, eInsruction’s mobile interactive whiteboard.      Each group got a Mobi to use to recreate their cartoon on the Workspace software installed on their computer.   This time they could add color and crop images for their characters and turn it into a movie.

At the end of the workshop, we shared everyone’s finished products on the different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy

We had a great time watching each other’s final projects! I had a lot of fun teaching with several of my colleagues for the ATLAST program, which stands for: Achieving Technological Literacy in Arizona Students and Teachers.

ATLAST is a project supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The performing unit is the National Center for Teacher Education (NCTE) in the Maricopa County Community College District. To learn more about the ATLAST project click here.


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How to Teach with a Broken Foot

October 1, 2010 eInstruction Interwrite Workspace, Mathcast, Mobi, Technology One comment

image taken from: http://www.footdoc.ca/www.FootDoc.ca/Website%20Metatarsalgia.htm

Somehow I managed to fracture the 2nd metatarsal (OK the image is NOT my foot, since the arrow is pointing to the 3rd metatarsal)  in my left foot the first day of class!  I wasn’t sure what was wrong with it, so after the first week I went to Urgent Care.  They couldn’t see anything, so I kept walking on it for another 2 weeks.   Finally I went to a podiatrist who saw on both the original x-ray and the new ones he took that I had a fracture that was getting worse.   He put me in a soft boot cast and crutches.

As time went on it became harder to walk and stand, but luckily, once I got into my classroom each hour, teaching was easy and still fun….I was SO glad I had my eInstruction Mobi!    If it wasn’t for my Mobi, I would not have been able to teach my classes these past 5 1/2 weeks!

I had a very difficult time getting to my classes (in three different buildings on campus) but once there, I could sit anywhere in the room (usually right with the students) and teach from my chair with my foot up!  I could interact with any program on the computer, and write all my examples on the board….without having to stand or walk during class!

Picture the teacher in this photo sitting down, with a cast on her foot, resting her foot on a chair….that would be me!

I would have continued teaching this way (and will for sure when I return), but I was forced to go on medical leave, as the walking from class to class (building to building) was just too much for my foot.

I will miss my students, and I KNOW they will miss learning with the help of great technology!

 

Livescribe pencasts on my iPad!

September 23, 2010 iPad, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mathcast, Pulse smartpen, Technology 2 comments

Livescribe recently announced a fantastic new player for their pencasts!   Since none of the Apple portable devices are allowed to run Flash, we haven’t been able to use our iPads, iPods and iPhones to view any of the Livescribe pencasts.    Well, that is not the case any longer!

Here is a link to Livescribe’s article announcing their player and how to get the free player on iTunes.

I downloaded it on my iPad to try it out.  It has a great interface and allows you to download any of the Livescribe pencasts you have made with a Pulse or Echo smartpen, and you can also download any other Livescribe pencasts that are contained on their community site.    Here is a screenshot of the opening menu on my iPad:

Once a pencast is downloaded to your iPad, iPod or iPhone, then you can view it as an animated movie with sound.  This is a screenshot of one of my pencasts that I downloaded, and then played on my iPad.

* I just created a resource page where I will be starting to place my .pencast files if you want to download them and try them on YOUR iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone

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Amazing Student Glogs!

September 19, 2010 Glogster, Math Projects, Mathcast 2 comments

My Math For Elementary Teachers classes finished their first set of projects last week.   I got permission to post some of their work on my blog.  I think you will be as excited about their work as I am.  One of the projects was to write a 30 minute classroom activity, based on one of the lessons from class.  They were to use the free online program called Glogster:

Here is the link to the Glog

Here is a link to this Glog

I am having a great time grading these!

 

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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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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