SED 646 - Technology for Mathematics Teaching

Week 14:

Turtle Geometry and Programming

• Math and Google Earth
• Spreadsheets in the Math Class
• Graphing Calculators

Reading for next week Chapters 1&5 of Mindstorms Semour Papert (MIT Press, 1980)

• Final Project Due Dec 20 - Instructions

Previous Announcemnts

Week 13:

Presentations #2 : go to the MathEdWiki - today's groups

• Math and Google Earth
• Spreadsheets in the Math Class
• Graphing Calculators

Reading for next week Chapter 10 Turtle Geometry from Computer Science Logo Style
Symbolic Computing by Brian Harvey (MIT Press, 1997) -

• no discussion for this, but be prepared to do some programming in class next week.

Week 11:

Presentations #1 : go to the MathEdWiki - today's groups

• Learning about Data and Mathematics with Fathom
• Technology based tutoring

Other topics:

• how to use enlvm
• using equation editor

Week 10:

OK so after a break we are back to looking at new ways to connect students to mathematics using technology. This week the topic is "mathematizing". How can we get students to see the math that is all around them? One way is to use technology to measure things and then show how the measurements follow mathematical laws. We will explore this idea by breaking into small groups and trying to find mathematics in different natural phenomena.

To do this we will use either LoggerPro (Vernier) with video cameras or DataStudio (PASCO) with digital sensors to capture the real world action and measure it. Your group will have a choice of phenomena to investigate. It will be up to you to identify something to measure, measure it, and find a mathematical description for the phenomena (ie. an equation). Lastly we will present our investigations to the rest of the class at the end of the day.

Other topics:

• Roschelle and Jackiw (2000)
• Group presentations and wiki pages
• Final Projects (research-informed, technology-based, lesson plan: 1200-2000 words)

Week 8:

Dynamic Geometry assignments are due today. Send them through the drop box if you havent already.

Reminder that class for next week has been canceled. Happy Halloween

The topic for this week is graphing - or rather, the role of graphing in learning about functions and algebra in general. The graphic above illustrates the five representations of functions that students normally see.

• Problem representation (eg. "a bucket has 7 gallons when it begins to be filled by a hose at 1 gal/minute but a hole emptys it at one-fifth gal/minute")
• Verbal description (eg. "the value of y increases 4 for every 5 that x increases")
• Equation (eg. y = 4x/5 + 7)
• Table

  X	Y
  0	7
  5	11
  -8.75	0

• Graphs
  

For a student to be truely successful with Algebra they need to be able to go back and forth between these 5 different representations. Not necessarily with ease, but they should be able to get started without much prompting.

How to get students to this point? What role can technology play?

Investigate this on the enlvm

Talk about it on the MathEdWiki

Week 7:

Add your comments about the Math Forum reading to the discussion board

Geometers Sketchpad.This week we want to understand what it means to do inquiry on sketchpad. What is inquiry and how is this different from a typical math assignment? You can find Sketchpad (version 4) on the server "ed5_mac" under "Math" and "Geometry".

Our task this week is to create a Sketchpad based lesson (due next week). Again we can have pairs working together if you want. The requirements for the assignment are to create a lesson in which students must construct (project based lesson) or inquire (mathematical inquiry) about some math topic from the standards (more or less). Your lesson plan should include the usual:

• Description of the math concept that you want to teach
• Lesson Plan Outline which describes the activities that students will do including the questions they need to answer with Sketchpad. NOTE: in your lesson plan outline, include discussion topics (e.g. how you will introduce the activity, how you conclude etc.)
• A sample assessment question (pop quiz)

READING: Roschelle and Jackiw (2000) Technology Design as Educational Research:
Interweaving Imagination, Inquiry, and Impact. in Kelly, A. & Lesh, R. Eds Handbook of Research Design in Mathematics and Science Education. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ

Week 6:

The MathEdWiki is starting to get more and more links on it. Please continue to add thinks whenever you find good ones. This way it will be a living document. (also please edit broken links on the wiki)

Geometers Sketchpad. We will look at sketchpad as an example of dynamic geometry and dynamic mathematics in general. What does "dynamic" mean? Is this really geometry? We will start with a reading about parallelograms (handout) and then get right to the software. You can find Sketchpad (version 4) on the server "ed5_mac" under "Math" and "Geometry".

This week we are just exploring. Next week our task will be to create a Sketchpad based lesson (due the following week). Again we can have pairs working together if you want.

Note - I just found a free program called Geogebra which looks pretty cool

READING: (postponed from last week) Renninger & Shumar (2002) Community Building with and for Teachers at The Math Forum in Renninger & Shumar (eds) Building Virtual Communities: Learning and Change in Cyberspace, Cambridge University Press.

Week 5:

All the class web pages are listed here. Check out what your peers have done. Ok this week we are going to try and combine two weeks worth of stuff and get all caught up. If that doesn happen - life goes on.

Topic 1: Presentations

Identifying groups for class presentations. As I mentioned in the email, we are going to use the discussion board to post ideas for presentations. We are looking to find groups of 3-5 to tell us about a valuable technology. Once we have a pretty clear idea of the idea we will start a wiki page. Each group is responsible for a wiki page and a class presentations (preferably hands on).

Topic 2: Research Tools

Research on math education research. I put all the info and links onto the MathEdWiki

Topic 3: Online tools for Math Teachers

• Math Forum
• Tapped-IN
• AlgebraLearningNet - in progress, want to help out?

Week 4:

Math Education Talk Thursday 4pm in Juniper Hall, Room 1133: see flyer

Nice job on the web pages - all looked excellent. Once you have gotten feedback on your page you are free to change it. I will ask you to post files on the web from time to time, so make sure you dont forget how to do it.

Applets: little applications. There are a huge number of applets available on the web. But what are they good for?

• Discuss Kaput Article - check out the discussion board to see what other students are saying.
• Applets: what are they? how can they help? Dont fall in the visualization trap!
  • find resources on the MathEdWiki

ASSIGNMENT 2:

We will work on creating an assignment around an applet of your choice. You may work with a partner to analyze an applet and identify an appropriate math standard that it could help students learn. Then you will create a lesson plan outline that incorporates the applet to help students learn. Your write up should include the following:

• Description (and URL) of the applet and what it does - include at least one screen shot.
• Description of the math concept that you want to teach
• Lesson Plan Outline which describes the activities that students will do including the questions they need to answer about/with the applet.
• A sample assessment question (pop quiz)

Put your assignment into the drop box by the begining of class next week (make sure both names are on it).

Week 3:

Finishing with our web page building. We will take a few minutes to clean up our web sites and make sure that all the links work etc. Remember your web page needs to have the following:

• Text and pictures identifying you and giving some information about you (can be informal)
• A link to the 646 class website
• One or more pages with links to instructional resources (e.g. Math Forum) > 10 resources

Next up - Connecting Math and Technology

• Characteristics of a successful math student (how do you know they were successful?)
  • Inspiration
• Discuss Kaput Article - check out the discussion board to see what other students are saying.

link to chat page 1 - chat page 2 - chat page 3

Week 2:

We continue with web pages this week. Last week we were able to build a simple page and show it to each other with the ed5_temp server. This week we need to learn how to publish our pages on the web using the Udrive.

A couple of announcements -

• Be sure you have your CSUN password! Today we need this password to access the udrive. Here is a handout about different ways to access the udrive (ITR has a page for this too). The udrive can be used to store your own files and to publish webpages (in the public_html folder)
• ASSIGNMENT 1: By next week (9/19) you need a web page with the following features. You must send the instructor an email with the correct URL to your site:
  • Text and pictures identifying you and giving some information about you (can be informal)
  • A link to the 646 class website
  • One or more pages with links to instructional resources (e.g. Math Forum) > 10 resources

Reading for next week: since last weeks' paper (see below) was quite long and covers many of the topics for week 3 I decided to give people extra time to read it. If you have already finished it - great. Also you need to respond to the prompts about the paper on the discussion board.

Week 1:

Welcome to 646. This class serves a dual purpose. The first purpose is somewhat boring: to give you the tech skills you need to complete your work in the masters program. This includes searching the web for information, locating research literature, publishing your papers on the web etc. The second - and more interesting - part of the course is to look at some of the tech tools that are available to help students learn math. These include tools like graphing calculators, spreadsheets etc. and specialize software like Green Globs or Geometer's Sketchpad. We are going to look a many different tools like this and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each. Technology does not make teaching better, but it can provide a powerful too which - in the right hands - can let teachers and students do more than before.

A couple of announcements -

• there is no book for this class, readings will be posted on the web or handed out in class
• class will start at 7:15 to give people in earlier classes a break
• yes we are using Macs. If this is a problem you are welcome to bring in a windows laptop, but you will likely find that there is no need for this.
• Permission numbers were mailed to you. If you did not get one, then email the instructor (brian.foley@csun.edu)
• Be sure you can get your CSUN email! I will be sending information out to the class list which has only csun accounts. to find out more about your account go to the CSUN accounts page.

Today we will start by making a simple web page which links some media and some information that would be valuable to teachers. To get started download the web page handout by clicking here. Also you may want to download a guide on How to make web pages with NVu

Reading for next week: Kaput, J. (2000) Technology as a Transformative Force in Math Education:Transforming Notations, Curriculum Structures, Content and Technologies, paper presented to the NCTM Standards 2000 Technology Meeting, 6/6/98

Optional extra- interview with Jim Kaput

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