After an enlightening moment with Shelley -- ever have one of those, "Why didn't I think of that?" moments? Since math courses are so tightly bound to textbooks and propriety software, I have been fighting departmental policies, amongst other things trying to find something that I feel would be useful for the students. Shelley recommended looking at open source software. DOH! I had been thrashing and beating my way through the trees for so long, that I forgot about the forest! Inspite of what they say, Math teachers CAN learn something from English teachers! ;)
I found a couple of promising tools. The one I am most interested in was developed at CalPoly, called Maxima. I'm having trouble getting installed on my laptop. Microsoft Vista may be at it again. I'm going to try to install in on my old laptop and see if that helps. Aleks, a program that customizes a study plan and continually updates itself is also interesting. I'm playing with the free trial of that.
While looking for videos, I found this on Teacher Tube:
I'm thinking it looks like the teacher is using a whiteboard type program while doing screen captures. I really like the use of the calculator simulation, too. I would like to create a library of these types of examples that students can refer back to throughout the semester. It gives you a chance to thoroughly describe (and check) a problem. Hopefully, this will help the students connect different concepts that you just don't have time for in class.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One thing I have been wondering about... All these tools we have been using from Google, Picasa, WetPaint, Animoto, Gabcast, etc. use server space provided by the company. Can you imagine MySpace's servers? Do you think it might happen that in some point in time, they will start charging for their services? Are we just getting tricked into using their tools and then our content will be held hostage? This came to mind because when Angie's list (a website that accepts comments from homeowners about service companies they have used/recommend) started, they actually were paying non-profit organizations to help build the database. Now you must become a member to post or access any of the information.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
That is always the fear when working with technologies that are not bought and supported by the college. However, I also think we need to be thinking in terms of how the wikinomics model of doing business is changing the world as well. :-)
Post a Comment