Fractal Prezi

What I liked about the Fractal Prezi is that is gave me a chance to bring in various material which my students can explore on their own. In this particular case, I was more focused on developing a disciplined mind, giving students a chance to explore a topic. I tried to include resources which I thought would be helpful to not just learn the topic at hand, but might inspire exploration into other topics (such as TedX, and Vi Hart). I also included some easier material which would be more assessable to students, all the way up to material from university math departments. For an intermediate or advanced student, using materials from such a department can also start to make the university a familiar place, and help students envision their future participation in academic life. Lastly, I had a video which connected a math topic to the natural world, hopefully increasing both understanding and a sense of wonder to the world around students.

            At this point, I wasn’t focused on teaching synthesis, although a great way to do that would be to have the student create a rich, interdisciplinary, project. My oldest son and I are planning such a project. Much of this plan has nothing to do with technology. He wants to raise money to have a well built in a poorer country. However, to accomplish his goal, I am having him study several things: the issues around needing clean water, how to judge the efficiency of a charity in accomplishing its goals, and details from organizations in how they actually go about building wells. He then is planning on giving a presentation and holding a fundraiser. Again, part of that fundraiser will be low tech, such as selling things he has knitted and simply talking to people. But, part of that fundraiser will involve technology, as he can take what he has learned and create an online format to share what he has learned and even collect money. This is an expansive enough project that he will be required the take information from different sources and synthesis it. Creating an online component of his presentation will also give him a chance to reflect on the information he has gathered.




For more information about the concepts of disciplined and synthesizing minds, see:

Gardner, Howard (2008). 5 minds for the future. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.



Math History

Educlipper for math history

The link above goes to an educlipper, which could be again be used for a math club. One of the resources is actually for parents, three for high school/ middle school, and one may be appropriate for elementary/ middle school.

Notes on using educlipper:

This was the first time I used educlipper. I actually found it someone frustrating to use: it took awhile to figure out how to use it, some of the clips with downloads did not work, and the embed code did not work. When tested the web link did work, which is why I have that listed above.

Math Club Poster

Next year I am hoping to get a math club going for a multi-age group of mainly highly gifted kids. Some of these kids have fallen in love with concepts such as pi, fractals, or  Möbius strips since preschool. For these kids, the club will seek to introduce them to new problem solving techniques, math characters and concepts from history, and a fair amount of math doodling. The students who have less experience will have a chance to be exposed to fascinating topics in math, play games, and make math related art. The goal for all students will be to enhance their love and understanding of math. 

The poster above seeks to help set the tone for the group. Often, I find kids who are interested in math topics, are excited, and want to share, but have a hard time finding peers who share their interests. Besides having a fun picture and quote, this poster can serve as a conversation piece, both about fractals and Edwin A. Abbott's book, Flatland (1992). Without any adult instruction given, this poster will hopefully get kids talking and sharing.

References

Abbot, E. (1992). Flatland: A romance of many dimensions. USA: Dover Publications.

Introduction "Tweet"

Education in the Maker Movement

Thank you everyone for a wonderful class! 

Here is my project video about the maker movement in education:

Resources accompanying this video can be found below. Please click "Read next page" at the bottom so you can see all of them. You wouldn't want to miss out on "Sylvia's Super-Awesome Maker Show"!

Update on "This was a bittersweet assignment for me."

On Tuesday, my boys just started a STEM class led by Mike Murphy. Mike is a homeschool Dad who just graduated his 16 year old son off to Brown University. His son, Ben Murphy, is the the one who taught the class last year which introduced my sons to Scratch (a programming language for children, developed by MIT) last year. So, I was super excited for my sons to learn more. In the first class, my sons were able to use Makey Makey to make joysticks for the computer. This is exactly the type of technology I would love for them to be exposed to and feel a bit intimidated to do myself.

The point of all this, is that I now really need laptops in a hurry. One son was able to use my lap top, but the other one was stuck.

Since my last post, I read an article about codestarter.org using chromebooks to teach kids programming. They made it work by wiping out the operating system of the chromebook and installining linex (which is free/open source). They then donate these machines to low income children who are interested in learning to code. I sent the article to my husband, who could see the advantages but is concerned with the fragility of chromebooks and most laptops.


What my husband really likes is toughbooks, a laptop built to military specification. They are strong enough to withstand being driven over. However, toddlers are still able to destroy them by ripping off the keys, which can sometimes be fixed, sometimes not. (Ask me how I know this, I dare you!)

While expensive new, inexpensive toughbooks can be found. We have ordered three, two for the boys (about $235 & $400) and one for my husband (a newer model for $1000). The older toughbooks have an old windows operating system which is longer supported, so the plan is to wipe it out and then install linux. He has done this with the first computer & successfully got Scratch going. His blog post on how this worked is here. My husband's computer has a newer operating system which he needs to run some of the translation software (mainly Trados) which he uses. (His last laptop recently died, so he also needs another computer. Especially as we sometimes lose power & internet, so he occasionally needs to be able to take the laptop into another town to work on assignments.)

On other fronts, I have a friend with a raspberry pi which was played with for awhile and is now sitting gathering dust. So, it may be coming our way.

Just wanted to share our tech adventures.

Here is a fun ad, but remember, toughbooks can be destroyed by toddlers!



References

"CrunchGear.com - Running over the CF-30 Toughbook with a Truck" 
[you tube video]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41lXVKSTOGQ

Fisher, Mathew. " Ubuntu 14.04 + Scratch Offline Editor on a Toughbook CF-29". [web article]. Retrieved from: http://planetcubicle.blogspot.com/2014/11/ubuntu-1404-scratch-offline-editor-on.html

Preston-Werner, Tom. "How we turn $199 Chromebooks into Ubuntu Based Code Learning Machines for Kids" [web article]. Retrieved from: http://blog.codestarter.org/post/93985346780/how-we-turn-199-chromebooks-into-ubuntu-based

Makey Makey [web site], Retrieved from: http://www.makeymakey.com/

Linux [web page]. Retrieved from: http://www.linux.com/

Raspberry pi [web page]. Retrieved from: http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Scratch [web page]. Retrieved from: http://scratch.mit.edu/

"Toughbook 31 vs ATV" [video]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n6mX8Q1waA

Toughbooks [web page]. Retrieved from: http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/laptop-computers.asp

Trados [web page]. Retrieved from: http://www.sdl.com/products/sdl-trados-studio/

Education and Gaming

I wanted to both share some games I have used, and some rabbit trails I have followed.

One of the most common uses of computer games is simply that of glorified flashcards. I realize that this is not considered a high level use of computers, and would not be very interesting to students for long periods of time. However, when basic facts need to be memorized, as in learning multiplication tables, they can be useful. Some programs I have used for multiplication memorization include: the CD that comes with the School Zone workbooks (ages ago!), BigBrainz (online), and Mt. Multiplis (ipad app). I particularly like Big Brainz as it adapts the questions to put an emphasis on what the students has been struggling with. It also has great graphics which my kids appreciate. What one of my kids didn’t like was that the themes were more “boyish” and the pressure of the questions being timed. The same student likes Multiplis, which is nice in that it demonstrates how multiplication works and is less pressured. However, it doesn’t look like a program which will ensure mastery of multiplication facts, just exposure. Currently, I have an eight year old working on Mt. Multiplus and I may switch her to Big Brainz when she is done.

When researching this topic, I came across a teacher, Ananth Pai , who has used computer based programs extensively with his third grade class. Again, I realize this is considered a “lower level” use of games, but it has clearly been a way to make sure those basics get done. He has an extensive website of the games he uses, which I thought might be helpful for others. I also noticed he uses Big Brainz, as I do and games from BBC’s bite size site. BBC has a huge number of educational games which are worth checking out.

In her video, “Games in Education”, Sylvia Martinez, mentioned that a higher use of games is to teach students how to create them. My two older children have done this with Scratch, and it has been a wonderful experience. For this blog, I also looked over Gamestar Mechanic, which focuses on teaching game design without requiring programming. After looking over the teacher materials and reading reviews, I think while this might be a fun application to use, it wouldn't be educationally worth my time to have my students spend their time working on this instead of Scratch. (It sounds like some teachers like to use Gamestar Mechanic before Scratch. My only concern with this is that Gamestar Mechanic looks so flashy, and easy to use that I don’t know if that would demotivate students from learning something more difficult and less flashy). As it is, I am trying to get my two older students to spread their wings a bit beyond Scratch and learn professional programming skills. They have been working a bit on C++ with my husband, and I just ordered them "Beginning C++ Through Game Programming" by Michael Dawson (2014) , as an encouragement. It is a big jump from Scratch to another language, but fortunately they have a mentor available.

For my eight year old, Scratch may be a little too advanced. She can create pictures, sprites, stamps, and make patterns. She hasn’t figured out how to go beyond this. She has played a bit with Scratch Junior, Daisy the Dinosaur, and Cargo Bot (all ipad apps). Scratch Junior has not really interested her. Daisy the Dinosaur was fun, but she worked through it quickly. There was no room for growth. Cargo Bot is actually an interesting little app. You have to program the crane to move boxes, and there is some logic involved. I was thinking about what scaffolding would be necessary to get her more fully ready to engage in Scratch and I found a lovely set of resources at code.org. They have lesson plans starting at the Kindergartener level and looking them over I think they are very age appropriate. The only down side is that they will require the time of a mentor. It’s not something you can set the kid down at a computer and let them loose. In my case, I presented the material to my 12 year old and explained that for each lesson he helped his little sister on, they could both have a computer turn to do what they want afterwards. He’s interested.

Back to Gamestar Mechanic, they have a good point that there is more to video game creation than programming. When looking, I found a variety of (mainly) free resources, which would be helpful to a teen or adult wanting to learn more about game creation an/or gamification:

http://education-portal.com/articles/8_Free_Game_Design_and_Development_Courses_and_Resources_Online.html

https://www.coursera.org/course/gamification
http://www.lynda.com/Education-Higher-Education-tutorials/Gamification-Learning/173211-2.html

Resources

"8 Free Game Design and Development Courses and Resources Online" [web page]. Retrieved from: http://education-portal.com/articles/8_Free_Game_Design_and_Development_Courses_and_Resources_Online.html

BBC Bite Size [web site]. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education

Big Brainz [web site]. Retrieved from: http://www.bigbrainz.com/

Cargo Bot [web page]. Retrieved from: http://twolivesleft.com/CargoBot/

Code [web site]. Retrieved from: http://code.org/

Coursera Gamification Course [web page]. Retrieved from: https://www.coursera.org/course/gamification

Dawson, Michael (2014). Beginning C++ Through Game Programming. Boston, MA: Cenage Learning PTR

Games in Ed Resources [web site]. Retrieved from: http://gamesinedresources.wikispaces.com/home

Gamestar Mechanic [web site]. Retrieved from: https://gamestarmechanic.com/

Lynda Gamification of Learning [web page]. Retrieved from: http://www.lynda.com/Education-Higher-Education-tutorials/Gamification-Learning/173211-2.html

Mind Leap [web site]. Retrieved from: http://www.mindleaptech.com/apps/daisy-the-dinosaur/

"School Teacher Ananth Pai Brings Video Games to the Classroom" [video]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6KCgZY-7HU&app=desktop

Scratch [web site]. Retrieved from: 

http://scratch.mit.edu/

Scratch Junior [web site]. Retrieved from: http://www.scratchjr.org/

School Zone Workbooks [web site]. Retrieved from: https://www.schoolzone.com/best-kids/workbooks

Teachly [web site]. Retrieved from: http://www.teachley.com/mt-multiplis-app.html

Team Drill Head [web site]. Retrieved from: https://sites.google.com/site/teamdrillhead/home