I am still in search of a tool with an equation editor that can be used to simulate some sort of group work online. I have talked with the District Blackboard support people, Pearson rep, Thomson rep, the technical support guy from Thinkwell (a small company that provides online content), as well, as making a request to Google Apps technical support. I am striking out, needless to say.
Trying to find a blog that relates to a college level algebra course is difficult. I either find dissertation level discussions or K-8 math teacher blogs. I did find one blog of a 7th grade math teacher that discussed his experience using "Fermi" questions. These are general questions that don't necessarily lead to specific answers, but do send students down the road of estimation, logic and problem solving. I thought this might be an interesting way of getting students to communicate about math (without actually doing mathematical equations).
I also discovered a teacher's blog that included SketchCasts. These are pretty cool! This is an online tool to simulate drawing on a whiteboard. Yes, this is a skill in itself I have discovered! Then you can post the link in a blog or in a LMS.
Even though Bb has a whiteboard tool, it does not allow you to save. I'm thinking I will probably put this to good use!
I have to admit I was a little overwhelmed the first week with all the new tools and everything being a little scattered. It is fine now since I set up bookmarks on my iGoogle page, but I'm not sure my math students would be able to set everything up all at once. That is o.k., though because I haven't figured out ways of using all the tool in a mathematical sense, ... yet...
2 comments:
Love the concept of Sketchcasts. However, I use a trackball to maintain manual dexterity (l&r) and my attempts to draw were about the same level as a kindergartner. I expect a std rodent would improve my drawing skills as would practice.
I was able to email the published effort to myself but didn't try to put it in a blog. Maybe later.
SUPER COOL! I love when people show me new techs I haven't seen before!
Post a Comment