The Web Site

The web assignment was extremely time consuming as most of my information was algebraic in nature. Using equation editor was tedious and impossible to format perfectly. Also the equations which appear as objects in the document become gradually offset and begin to gradually cover the words on the page more and more.  The original document is a mess of formatting but the final result is good.  The way the website is set up is for students to look at a common problem over the course of a chapter.  For an evaluation I chose for the students to tweak the site and use a different problem and solve it in each of the same ways the website does.  This could be easily adapted to future chapters with a different or the same common problem.  Instead of the teacher making future sites the students would need to create them as projects or extended learning assignments.

Systems of Equations Website
Evaluation
Evaluation

I found the new version of windows movie maker to be less easy to use than the older verion on windows XP. There was no option to see the movie in a time mode which made it impossible to stretch clips out and increase their duration. With the proper training and materials students could easily be given assignments where instead of a report or project the end product could be a movie. I invision such an assignment being like a google docs assignment where each student or student group would be given a section of a chapter on which to produce a movie clip. Each clip could then be watched in sequence to create a complete overview of the chapter.

Movie

WebQuest

The webquest was definitely something that a person would individually design from scratch once or twice a quarter. It would work good as a final project for a class. The design was easy and painless just time consuming. I think I would find it very hard to have students design one of these themselves but instead I would have them search for ones they liked. I would have them evaluate the ones they liked and then create a list of good ones they could use as final projects etc. or extra work when they finish regular work. It could be something they work on individually when finished with another assignement as a long term project.

Virtual Tour Of Mathematicians

The virtual tour I designed for students has them look into the culture of different mathematicians. The activity will hopefully have the students realize mathematicians come from very diverse backgrounds (they reasearch the mathematicians bios) and from all over the globe. Each student will be given three mathematicians to create tours of. They will look into the culture of the area they were raised in and their personal background stressing that they come from different parts of the world with different backgrounds. The following is a brief tour of three matematicians.

Google Earth Tour

The PLN gave me a visual on the variety of ways that I collece information. I found that although I am young most of my information comes from concrete connections with people or materials instead of virtual. I do find it difficult to find quality upper level mathematics on most sites like uTube or iTunes U. There is a wealth of activities for middle school grade mathematics but not too much for upper level algebra. This is reflected in my PLN as most of the learning still comes from professional development offered through my district and book materials.

My PLN

ScreenCasting Assignment

For the screencasting assignment I wanted to give students an opportunity to be the teacher without the fear of getting up infront of the room. Students will be given an identity to prove and use the equation editor in Word to write their solution. As they compose the solution they will explain each step in a screencast. The screencasts from all students will then be posted together on the class website under a page for identities. If a student has a problem with solving an identity they could then go to the class site and get a lesson on solving identities at any time. They could also be used in class for review. The screencasting was very easy to make. The pause feature was very important as computer operations do not always go smoothly and household interruptions do occur. The countdown was great so you knew exactly when to start the recording.

Identity Screencast

Google Docs 1

For mathematics Google Docs is a great improvement from Word as they made a few simple changes that Word never did.  To edit and insert equations into a Word document previous to 2007 was a tedious task and often school computers did not have the equation 3.0 loaded on it.  In Google Docs once you insert an equation the tools stay visible on the toolbar allowing for easy editing and additions.  There is a peculiarity when typing equations of the cursor staying next to the equal sign in and then the text is inserted at the end of the line of text.  It's just odd that the cursor does not follow the text at the end of the line and did create a learning curve for myself.  Having never used Google Docs before I found it very easy to use as it resembled Word.  I was unable to find any formatting for columns.  If you know how to split a page into two columns on Google Docs please let me know.

Assignment 1: Trigonometric Match Maker Assignment

For the first Google Docs assignment students will use the document and equation writing features to prove trigonometric expressions are equivalent.  Each student in the class will be given a different trigonometric expression assigned in Google Docs.  There will be pairs of expressions which look different but are mathematically equivalent randomly placed in the document.  Students will each simplify their expression on the common document and then find who has the expression equivalent to theirs.  If they find a mistake in another students work they should comment on it, provide a suggestion, (not solve or fix it) and leave their name so the student can fix the mistake.  It is mandatory they use the equation toolbar to edit and simplify the expressions NOT the characters from the keyboard.

Assignment 2: Solving Systems of Two and Three Variables



I believe assignments using Google Docs should make students rely on each other, creating one holistic learning environment.  Students need to not just work independently of each other, they should view the classroom as a learning community where it is each student's job to ensure fellow classmates participate and contribute to the learning process and environment.  The second assignment for Google Docs will be a long term chapter project on systems of equations, incorporating the jigsaw method and small learning communities.  Students will be divided into groups according to ability level, each group will be assigned a different method of solving systems to master.  In each group there will be specific tasks with a person in charge, again assigned according to skill ability, i.e. Analyzer, Solver, Reporter, Slide Master etc.  The reporters job will be to use Google Docs to report on how they are solving the equations, and make notes outlining the procedure.  As groups add to the online document it will be up to them to organize the information into the correct order for a full scale presentation of all groups.  Once organized each group will begin creating slides for their section of the presentation, and then compile them into one sideshow of all methods.  The final capstone to the project will be each group presenting/teaching their lesson and method to the class.

Web 2.0

After searching for a bit I found a tool I could use in class on a regular basis.  GeoGebra is very similar to Geometer's Sketchpad in the same way that Google Docs is similar to Word.  The commands and menus are basically the same but instead of paying $30 for a student edition it can be used on-line at any time from any computer or be downloaded for free for off-line use.  No longer would geometry teachers have to worry about having enough protractors etc., if there are enough coumputers.  Students can also save their constructions to the desktop or as a dynamic worksheet/webpage. 

Example of Student Project using GeoGebra

Students would be required to use this page to analyze how linear functions change when changing the x and y value of a given point. (a problem will be that the algebra view shows the form Ax + By = C not y=mx+b).  Students will change the graph and describe the changes they see in the function.  A worksheet and classroom discussion would guide them through the process with guided questions but they would be required to write all their descriptions in text boxes directly into the dynamic worksheet as they work.  Students would be required to save their work as a dynamic worksheet and then post it to the class webpage and be required to comment on the work of 3 other students as to correctness etc.

GeoGebra

I found ProProfs to be easy to use overall for quiz making in general. However, for the subject of mathematics it had some downfalls. There was only the ability to create very simple equations, this was more than other quiz making sites offered. Most sites only alowed for text, ProProfs did have a tab for super and subscript allowing for questions with exponents or functions. The superscript option was only avaliable for the question however, and could not be used when writing the answers out. This is why the answers had to use the ^ symbol to indicate exponents. Students use ^ on the OGT calculators so they are use to seeing it but it creates a less professional looking quiz. Writing equations was time consuming and I would probably use this tool when making quizes about concepts, vocabulary, etc. I think it would be very difficult for students to use this to create a quiz with problems in it, especially if they are use to using equation editor. I would like to see students creating quizes with conceptual understanding questions such as the question in my quiz asking what the reason is for 9^0=1. Students would take each others quizes and then have to read through the answers for homework. The next day in class the student who made the quiz would help the students who answered the question incorrectly.

Rules of Exponents » online test

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