Techie Learning Tech

Well, sadly this is my last blog post (for the course). Not to fear though - this class inspired me to create a personal blog with Wordpress where I can continue to talk about tech stuff, education, etc. I really had a blast in this class... The projects were a lot of fun, because even if you were very familiar with the tools (Powerpoint, Excel, etc.) you could always opt to take things to the next level to stretch your understanding. I liked having that flexibility.

My favorite project of the semester was probably the spreadsheet, just because I had never explored those features of Excel whatsoever (e.g., dropdowns, conditional statements, etc.) and I really learned a lot from it. I have to say though - the thing I got the most out of in this class were all of the cool links and tools that Ginny shared with us offhandedly during lecture. I greedily added them all to my Delicious account and I can honestly say this class has influenced my daily life... not something I can say about many classes.

Literally every evening, my ritual now is to catch up on news from RSS feeds and tweets. This isn't something I was doing prior to the class, and for better or worse I feel better connected to what's going on in the world. And unlike mass media, with RSS and Twitter you choose your sources of information to precisely suit your interests. I think that's something that a lot of people in our parents' generation haven't fully understood about social media. Sure, some people use social networks for nothing more than telling people what they're cooking for dinner, but this semester I've learned that its usefulness extends far beyond that.

Thanks Ginny!! I look forward to staying in touch.

This wasn't something mentioned in class (at least I don't think so), but I wanted to blog about it because I've been using it a lot lately and have fallen in love with it. It's a service called Instapaper, and you can use it to archive copies of articles you come across on the Web for later perusal.

The reason I find it so useful is that I've recently become addicted to RSS feeds and Twitter, so I'm constantly being inundated with a neverending torrent of articles that I don't have time to read. At the same time, there's some that catch my eye and I don't want them to get lost in the pit of tweets and blogs where I can't find them later. Luckily Instapaper has both a website and excellent apps for iPhone and iPad. Also, the RSS aggregator I use, NewsRack (for iPhone/iPad) which syncs with Google Reader, has a "Send to Instapaper" feature. Twitterrific, the Twitter client I use for iPhone/iPad, also has this feature.

Everytime I open the iPhone or iPad app for Instapaper, it syncs with the website and makes a local copy of all the articles I've marked for archival. This is especially handy for plane trips or other places where I don't have Internet, because I have tons of content to read, all stored locally!

So the other day I made use of a really cool site called "Quiettube" that our 486 instructor showed us. If you go to http://quiettube.com you can add a bookmarklet to your browser. When you go to YouTube and find a video you'd like to share, you click the bookmarklet and it creates a nice clean web page with a shortened URL containing your video. No ads, no fluff, and not blocked by standard filtering software that's used in schools presumably. I used it to share a video with my class the other day. Very nifty!

I finally finished it! Okay, I really went overboard on this project, but I'm double-dipping and using this to help teach my Math 113 students something called the Art Gallery Theorem.

I used a slew of tools to create this video. First, I created the original slideshow using Google Docs (images created with MS Paint). Then, when I realized the MS Powerpoint had a built-in narration feature, I exported the Google slideshow as a .ppt, and recorded a narration in MS Powerpoint.

The Powerpoint narration tool is pretty nice - it records your narration along with the timing when you advance the slide. The downside is that you have to record it in one complete take, and you can't go back and edit the narration for individual slides. So this took me literally 25+ takes.

Next, I used AuthorStream.com to convert the Powerpoint into an .mp4 video. I looked at other ways of accomplishing the same thing, such as exporting the slides as jpegs and doing the narration in iMovie, but I couldn't figure out how to sync up the timing of my narration with the images easily. I also tried the "export as movie" feature in Powerpoint, but it didn't include the audio. I could've taken that video and added the narration within iMovie, but AuthorStream was a simpler alternative.

The downside is that converting the AuthorStream to a downloadable movie costs $2, but I sprung for it. I didn't stop there however, since the aim of this project was using iMovie or MovieMaker, so I then imported the .mp4 into iMovie and added transitions at the start and finish, a caption at the beginning with my name, and a short credits slide at the end. I also added some Public Domain music in the background.

Anyway, I had fun doing this - so watch and learn!

This week we created Interactive Spreadsheets using MS Excel. The one I created was for an AP Calculus class, over derivatives. Students are given a list of 10 simple functions, and have to calculate the derivative and choose the correct answer from a drop-down list of choices. The spreadsheet then tells the student if they were correct, adds up the points, and calculates the percentage of power rule, product rule, and quotient rule problems they got correct.

I thought this was a really cool method to use for assessment. I think it'd mainly be useful as a practice quiz, since students can immediately see if they were right or wrong and then change their answer. To modify it to be an actual assessment, you wouldn't want to give them immediate feedback about whether they were right or wrong.

This week we created a chart using the software package "Inspiration." It's a really cool program which allows you to create beautiful looking tree charts, web charts, etc. easily. I really like the "outline" feature, which automatically translates a flow-chart into an outline and vice-versa.

The only thing I wish it had was an equation editor, or at least support for copying/pasting math symbols. Instead, I had to edit an equation in MS Word, take a screenshot, paste it into MS Paint and then insert the .bmp into Inspiration.

Nonetheless, I think this will definitely become part of my software arsenal. I was looking through the built-in templates, and it includes one for lesson plans. This could actually make writing lesson plans fun (imagine that)!

Last week we had the assignment of completing a "Digital Scavenger Hunt" in small groups, where we had to find various things related to our content areas, take photos and create a Google Docs presentation exhibiting the photos.

As math people, we had to find various geometric shapes and so-forth. Being the overachieving nerds that we are, we then edited the photos using MS Paint and outlined the shapes to better illustrate before resizing them to 4x6 and 72 ppi.

Here's our presentation embedded below:

I'm having fun collecting all of the links from this class in my Diigo account. I tend to prefer Diigo to Delicious since its browser toolbar also lets you annotate and highlight webpages in addition to the social bookmarking.

Of the links we've looked at, I found Wordle to be really cool. Even though its applicability in math is probably pretty slim, I really liked the concept. Being able to copy and paste an important document and have the size of the words in the resulting "Wordle" reflect the number of times that words appears in the document lets you really get the gist of something.

I created a Wordle using an abbreviated version of the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem which appears at the bottom of my blog.

We're creating an Inquiry-Based Learning Activity in my Tech class. We have the option of a document-based activity, where the students are basically filling out an electronic worksheet by researching various websites, or (for extra credit) actually creating a WebQuest on http://questgarden.com. Of course, I'm going to go the WebQuest route. Fun!!!!

So a topic... hmm,... Well, I'd like to eventually teach AP Calculus, so I think I'll go with something involving the derivative. I checked out the Teacher's Guide to Stewart's Calculus, which is the textbook they use in Knox Co. for AP Calculus (incidentally the same book they use for Math 141-142 at UTK). Derivatives are Chapter 3 and Applications of Differentiation are Ch. 4. I'm trying to decide if this WebQuest will be an introduction to differentiation or something to tie it all together at the end of Ch. 4.

If they had more background knowledge, the WebQuest might be a little more fun,... but if differentiation was somewhat new to them, it would involve more discovery. Hm,... Section 3.4 is called "Rates of Change in the Natural and Social Sciences," that might be a good place to focus as far as the text is concerned. Okay, I flipped to that section in the book and it covers these standards:

• II.2c, "Instantaneous rate of change as the limit of average rate of change,"
  
• II.3d, "Equations involving derivatives. verbal descriptions are translated into equations involving derivatives and vice versa," and
  
• II.5f, "Interpretation of the derivative as a rate of change in varied applied contexts, including velocity, speed, and acceleration."

There's also a pretty cool "Group Work" worksheet in here for that section... Maybe I could convert that into my WebQuest? Hmm,...

So what's my first impression of Webquests? I think they have huge potential, and I think with Web 2.0 and things like Flash, they will be the future of online education. I think to really take advantage of that medium, a Webquest should be interactive (more than just clicking on hyperlinks) and should include things like audio and videos.

Most of the examples we looked at in class today were just a collection of resources (hyperlinks) along with some writing assignment. A few of the better ones incorporated software like Excel or Powerpoint. I think the more we can get students immersed in the material, the better. Give them headphones. In the introductory section, give them an introductory video in addition to a written introduction to hook them. Make use of Java or PHP to allow students to input information from within the Webquest and create a product that they can save or print.

Basically my first impression is that Webquests could be so much more than what we've seen so far. I'm sure there's some awesome ones out there though, and I'm sure they will improve by leaps and bounds as more technophiles get into the education workforce. I think it would also be cool if someone like Adobe wrote software (or a template for one of their existing software packages) specifically for developing multimedia Webquests, especially one with a WYSIWYG interface.

How do I feel about wikis? I feel pretty happy about them. We created one for our class that's content specific (I'm part of a Math wiki) here: http://tpte486math.pbworks.com. I'm having a lot of fun with it... It's my first time being part of a Wiki, and I can really see the usefulness. Being able to collaborate with other people, each able to edit the page, add links, text, tables, images, etc. It's very cool, and I can't wait to find a way to use it in the classroom.

I'm just trying to brainstorm how I might apply it to a math class. Create a wiki for the class, give each student an account, and then what? We could share links with interesting math resources, but I'm wondering how we could use it as a teaching tool for whatever we're studying at the time other than listing outside references. Maybe we could use it to collaborate on challenging homework problems... The only problem is math is a little difficult to type without the right software (equation editors, etc.). It's definitely something I'll be thinking about.

I think our technology teacher made a good point when she said that the main issue with new wiki users is resentment towards others who edit their work, or hesitancy to edit the work of others. It's definitely something you have to get used to. People tend to be very defensive of their work, even if there are glaring errors. They may take offense to someone coming along and making minor changes, which is simply the nature of the medium.

On Wednesday, we worked on a website evaluation as an assignment in my technology class. The purpose of this evaluation was to objectively and thoroughly critique a website for its educational value and usefulness in classroom instruction. The website I critiqued was http://www.mathfactcafe.com.

The site I chose was basically a math worksheet and flashcard generator for grades K-5. So it would be used by a teacher outside of class as a resource, rather than by students themselves. That altered the focus of my critique slightly, since the user-friendliness of a site isn't important to the same degree for a teacher as it is for young students. It was an interesting exercise though... We had to verify that the site worked in various browsers, check whether it required any plug-ins to run properly, etc.

I guess the part I found most difficult was verifying the credibility of the site. The site I chose in particular was published by "Math Fact Cafe, LLC." In other words, someone published the site under the name of a company of the same name. Given the content (worksheets involving simple math), the credibility wasn't of utmost importance. What really mattered was that the site did what it claimed, that is generating worksheets that are free of typos and formatting errors. There weren't any opinions or subjective material posted on the site that would make it as important to check the source's credibility.

Still, I think in the future when I'm looking at a site and trying to determine how useful it will be, this process we went through will help guide me.

So I'm taking this class (TPTE 486) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville as part of a post-baccalaureate teacher education program. It's basically a course in instructional technology for K-12 teachers. The thing is, I'm already an avid techie, so I registered for this class thinking, "I dare you to teach me something I don't already know."

Well, I've already learned about some cool resources that I wasn't aware of... For example, last weekend I started an account with Diigo, a social bookmarking site. I have to say it's pretty awesome. Instead of having your bookmarks saved locally, handcuffed to the browser on your computer, Diigo saves your bookmarks remotely so you can access them anywhere. You can search them, share them, and see other links suggested based on your bookmarks. Not only that, but you can archive sites, and even annotate (highlight text, add sticky notes, etc.) and the next time you visit the site, your annotations are still there!

How am I making use of this fun new toy? Well, our textbook for the course is completely laden with websites related to education and technology. So I figure while I'm doing the reading assignments, anytime I come across a link (even if I can't think of an immediate use for it), I'll add it to my Diigo account. So by the end of the semester, I should have a nice little collection of links that I can use during my internship this Fall.

Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy reading about a techie's journey through a course in instructional technology! More to come...