Describe a problem in teaching/learning/performance. One of the problems I face when I teach Math is that there are not enough resources available out there for students to study in order to improve their fundamental Math skills and problem-solving skills. For example, some of my students still have difficulty adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing integers/fractions/decimals. However, […]
Continue reading [DAY 3] Math Master Posted in: Week 11: Mobiles Choose two apps from the sample list below (or find your own award-winning apps) and evaluate them with these questions: what problem does the app solve? what affordances of mobile does the app rely on? what are the non-mlearning (competing) methods of teaching the subject? how is the app’s mlearning approach more or less compelling […]
Continue reading [DAY 2] Cool M-Learning Devices Posted in: Week 11: Mobiles
Thanks for your reviews!
What do you think the possibilities are for apps that scaffold authentic learning vs. trying to do the learning in the mobile itself? An app might help you do a dissection, or might guide you through learning math in realistic contexts, with collaborative activities and sharing of the mobile…
Hi David,
Whether an app “scaffolds authentic learning” or “[tries] to do the learning in the mobile itself”, it should suit children at the right age/grade and at the right knowledge level.
Why not have an app that does both? I’ve seen many websites and games that focus on secondary Math and collaborative activities, but haven’t seen apps for m-learning that focus on them.
Deb
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David William Price 8:49 pm on November 18, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great ideas!
I’m glad you enjoyed the assignment. You have an interesting concept. I love the idea of educators creating and sharing questions to enhance and grow your database.
What do you think of minimizing translation issues by focusing on using icons and imagery in your problems instead of words? Take a look at Robert Horn’s work, or think about “wordless instructions” like those used by Ikea or in emergency exit brochures for aircraft.
How might you use the computer in the mobile itself to generate questions? It’s probably not necessary to create all the individual questions yourself. Instead you could create heuristics, and the mobile would use the heuristics to generate infinite questions based on those rule sets. THat way you wouldn’t even have to use a lot of data transfer or updates or translation.
Social networking could be used for collaboration to solve problems together. What about an app that requires collaboration to solve math problems? You can see each other working on the problems… or you share a mobile to work a problem out.
I guess another issue for me is why people have trouble with math. Do they have a breakdown in conceptual understanding? How might they use the real world to help them understand math problems? A mobile could scaffold them through using real items or conducting real activities that illustrate the math concepts. To some extent, the Khan Academy does this in their videos.
Deb Kim 11:08 pm on November 21, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thank you for the questions, David.
“What do you think of minimizing translation issues by focusing on using icons and imagery in your problems instead of words?”
It’s a good idea that we can minimize translation issues by using icons and images instead of words. However, as the math curriculum and new textbooks that have changed over the last 2 years are focusing on mathematical literacy these days, students still need to learn the ways to translate word problems into diagrams and mathematical sentences. I’ve seen so many kids who can solve a word problem that includes a diagram, but not the one without a diagram. Although I give the same word problem to the students, one with a diagram and one without it, the scores between the two are very different. Many students still need to work on solving word problems.
“How might you use the computer in the mobile itself to generate questions?”
The collection of questions in a question bank is kind of like creating heuristics. Same formatted question with different numbers each time it’s generated.
One of my issues with math is how to make a connection between the real world situations and conceptual understanding in math. I’ve applied some real world situations for teaching. For instance, I once used the Tower of Piza to teach trigonometry in Math 9. I briefly went over the history of the Tower of Piza and told students to find as many angles as possible using sine, cosine, and tangent ratios. Another example is that I sent my AWM (Apprenticeship & Workplace Math) 10 students to a convenience store and ask them to pick up things they want to purchase and calculate HST, sale price, and discount.
Deb