http://whight.edublogs.org “Mathematics is one of the essential emanations of the human spirit, a thing to be value in and for itself, like art or poetry” – Oswald Veblem 1924. Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:27:10 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Research discussed on Edutopia has found 4 key components of learning that need to be evident when we utilise technology in the classroom to enhance learning.   Our students must be actively engaged. There must be opportunities for group interactions (surely the use of collaborative software establishes this). There must be frequent feedback. I ... http://whight.edublogs.org/2008/11/05/integrating-technology-we-all-can-do-it/ Listen to my podcast or read below: podcast As part of my immersion activity with Nigel, we looked at Microworlds and in particular the implementation of SimCalcs MathWorld in a Mathematics classroom. Another example is ThinkerTools which looks at Newtons laws of motion (discussed here). MicroWorlds are seen by Jonassen as beneficial for students ... http://whight.edublogs.org/2008/10/30/living-in-a-microworld/ While searching external bloggers I came across an interesting blog by an Instructional Technologist at a US School. It mentioned an interesting technology called Sketchcast and the potential to use this program to create tutorials for students and parents. Whilst this site apparently allowed you to create sketchcasts, it doesn't appear to ... http://whight.edublogs.org/2008/10/30/constructivist-sketchcasting/ I have read Nico’s blog about the benefits and use of utilising geometry software within a classroom. I agree with him that these are an ideal chance to get the students to construct their own knowledge.   Nico talks about the dynamic nature of such constructions i.e. “when constructing the bisector of ... http://whight.edublogs.org/2008/10/23/geometric-generalisations/ Upon reading some posts in the global blogosphere (is that a word) I came across a rather thought provoking piece that reminded me of incidents on my practicum. The post concludes on the need to thoughtfully implement technology so that it is utilised as a purposeful tool. In my practical experience, ... http://whight.edublogs.org/2008/10/23/a-purpose-must-exist-a-response/   This was one topic I was considering for my immersion activity and felt it warranted some greater exploration on my part. For me personally, I couldn’t see the value in commercial games and only thought benefits could exist in educationally produced material.   But this view has altered. Upon viewing the ... http://whight.edublogs.org/2008/10/23/games-that-educate/ As part of immersion we are required to create a mindmap. When utilising this tool (we used bubbl.us) it was apparent that it enabled us to logically organise our thoughts on the types of ‘mindtools’ available to us as educators. Indeed this is the reason why mindmaps are beneficial in helping ... http://whight.edublogs.org/2008/10/23/why-mindmap/ Macromedia's FLASH development system is a system that allows a user to create animations which can be used within a mathematics classroom.   Bakhoum (2008) has studied in some detail the effect of using flash animations within a mathematics classroom. On average 65% of the students achieved better scores when using flash ... http://whight.edublogs.org/2008/10/03/flashy-maths/ After reading Taniak’s piece on inappropriateness of the Carbon Dating of Digital Immigrants I felt it was necessary to add my two cents on the digital divide.   For a teacher, I believe there are more important divisions other than age. For example great divides exist within the current generation of “digital ... http://whight.edublogs.org/2008/10/03/divisions-within-a-generation-a-response/ I refer to another bloggers discussion  on the lack of research on the success of constructivist techniques. Personally I felt I need to examine this area to see if I could find specific success in my KLA of mathematics, as I too had found some of the claims made to ... http://whight.edublogs.org/2008/10/03/constructivist-success-a-response/