Teaching College Math Technology Blog

Friendly Neighborhood Reminder

2009-03-09T22:28:00.002-04:00

If you're getting this message, you may not have moved to the new blog website. New content is only going on the new site: www.teachingcollegemath.com

If all you need is the feed, this (http://feeds2.feedburner.com/TeachingCollegeMath) is it.

This Blog is Moving

2009-02-27T15:28:00.004-05:00

I've decided to take this very tricky plunge of moving the site of this blog. I've held the domain www.teachingcollegemath.com for a while, and I did have a webpage up on it, but all the action is on the blog (and I don't have the energy to update both).

So, the blog is still TeachingCollegeMath, but it's relocated to the domain www.teachingcollegemath.com. All the posts and comments have been duplicated on the new site.

I think the new site is easier to read and navigate. The text of posts is now in black (instead of white on black).

All the tutorials are organized by topic in the Tutorial menu at the top of the page. All links to past presentations can be found under Resources and are organized by the type of resource (as well as by event).

If you're getting emails from this blog, or subscribe in a blogreader, you're going to have to take that extra 10-60 seconds of your life and resubscribe to the other feed as this one will now go dead (aside from a reminder or two). Resubscribe in the upper left-hand corner of the site.

I hope you'll make the move with me, but if this is where we part ways, I understand that too.

To entice you to move, I've rounded up some new math videos from YouTube and will be posting them throughout the next week. The first one is up!

More Random Notes

2009-02-26T07:00:00.001-05:00

I am still trying to catch up on reading from my month off, so rather than a full-blown post on each of these topics, I'm just going to give you the links:

The Formula that Killed Wall Street (the cover story in Wired Magazine)

If you're trying to memorize the first 23 digits of pi (to get your official geek status) you might want to check out the Major Memory System for memorizing two-digit numbers as a word (outlined on LiteMind). I've seen this trick used before in Arthur Benjamin's Mathemagic TedTalk.

A cool visual algorithm for multiplication (via y of x).

A math game called "Lure of the Labyrinth" is being used to teach pre-algebra skills at the middle-school level in Maryland (story here).

From Freakonomics, a story about a lottery game which may actually have expected value of $1.48 for every $1 invested.

Mike at Walking Randomly tells us about a new graphing calculator app for the Nintendo DS!

Grand Theft Calculus

2009-02-25T17:37:00.002-05:00

To the best of my knowledge, this image was created by Scot Osterweil of MIT.

Explaining Finance

2009-02-25T10:10:00.004-05:00

CommonCraft has three new videos about math (well, technically financial math). I wonder if they'll tackle the Gaussian Copula Function next?

Saving Money in Plain English

Investing Money in Plain English

Borrowing Money in Plain English

Random Notes from eLearning

2009-02-23T01:37:00.002-05:00

I've been trying to gather my thoughts about India to post here (not there yet) and enjoying the ITC eLearning conference here in Portland, Oregon.

The speaker this morning, Bryan Alexander (NITLE), gave a great talk on Cyberculture - focusing a lot of time on Web 2.0 (the topic of my talk a couple hours later). I was worried this would lower attendance, but not to worry, there were 76 in attendance and they were a great (and participatory) audience.

After a little worry about my inability to connect to the Internet (I did have a backup plan), the tech guy finally found a username/password that worked and earned himself "the first kiss of the conference" (how many do they get exactly?)

You can play with the presentation (updated since the last show) on the interactive mindmap here.

Other random notes you might want to check out:

Pulse!! Cutting-edge 3D virtual hospital and lifelike patients provide a rich environment in which civilian and military health care professionals can practice clinical skills. (cost? $20 million)

And while we're discussing that $20 million, if you need to fill in some gaps in your next grant proposal, why not try using the Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator?

Here's an interesting way to interact with your reading online. Install ClearForest Gnosis as a Firefox add-on and it will add metadata (in the form of links) to any words on the page that can be associated with other well-known web content like wikipedia, map locations, etc.

The best find of the day was a great image entitled "Grand Theft Calculus" but I can't seem to track it down with traditional (google) methods, so will have to try a more social approach.

eLearning 2009

2009-02-18T10:23:00.002-05:00

Anyone out there attending the eLearning 2009 Conference in Portland, Oregon this weekend? If so, I'll see you there!

Fibonacci Sequence in Siftables

2009-02-17T15:19:00.005-05:00

"We're on the cusp of this new generation of tools for interacting with digital media that are going to bring information into our world on our terms." - David Merrill

Jump to 2:20 to see the math example of a Fibonacci sequence in this TED Talk called Siftables.

On a side note, I've been grabbing video from the Internet using a little program called Miro which acts kind of like Tivo for the Internet - check it out!

Guest Blogger Winners

2009-02-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who submitted blog posts to "blogsit" while I was out of the country. The guest posts were great and we all learned some new things!

As promised, there are two winners for the guest blogger door prizes ... I enlisted my husband to draw two names out of an empty software box ... drumroll please ...

Camtasia Studio 6: Keri Bjorklund

SnagIt 9: Kenrick Mock

Again, my appreciation to all of you for giving us your expertise!

Teaching Math with Clickers

2009-02-13T07:00:00.001-05:00

Today's guest blogger is Derek Bruff, Assistant Director for the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University. Derek writes a blog you may have stumbled across called Teaching with Classroom Response Systems.

Here’s a question I ask the students in my probability and statistics course:

Your sister-in-law calls to say that she’s having twins. Which of the following is more likely? (Assume that she’s not having identical twins.)

A. Twin boys
B. Twin girls
C. One boy and one girl
D. All are equally likely

Since I ask this question using a classroom response system, each of my students is able to submit his or her response to the question using a handheld device called a clicker. The clickers beam the students’ responses via radio frequencies to a receiver attached to my classroom computer. Software on the computer generates a histogram that shows the distribution of student responses.

I first ask my students to respond to the question individually, without discussing it. Usually, the histogram shows me that most of the students answered incorrectly, which tells me that the question is one worth asking. I then ask my students to discuss the question in pairs or small groups, then submit their (possibly different) answers again using their clickers. This generates a buzz in the classroom as students discuss and debate the answer choices with their peers.

After the second “vote,” the histogram usually shows me that there’s some convergence to the correct answer, choice C in this case. This sets the stage for a great classwide discussion. I usually ask a student who changed his or her mind to share their reasoning with the class. I then invite other students to defend or question particular answer choices. I usually wrap things up by drawing the appropriate tree diagram on the board, which helps to explain this question and introduces to the students a visual tool they can use to analyze similar probability questions.

Why use clickers to ask a question like this one? There are several reasons. The histogram generated by the classroom response system I use gives me useful information on my students’ learning. If the histogram shows me that the students understand the question, then I can quickly move on to the next topic. If the histogram shows me that the students are confused, then I can drill down on the question at hand, using the popular wrong answers to guide the discussion.

Asking for a show of hands might provide similar information, but students answering a question by raising their hands don’t answer independently. They look to their peers as they answer, which means that the distribution of hands I see doesn’t accurately reflect my students’ understanding. Using clickers allows my students to answer independently, yielding more useful information I can use to make teaching decisions.

While individual student responses are visible to the students, they are visible to me. This means that I can hold students accountable for their responses by counting clicker questions as part of the students’ participation grades. Clickers provide me a way to expect each and every student to engage with the questions I ask them during class, not just the students who are quick or bold enough to volunteer answers verbally.

Moreover, showing the students the distribution of responses can enhance the classroom dynamic. When students see that two or more answers are popular, they become more interested in the question. When it is obvious from the histogram and from what I tell my students that most students answered a question incorrectly, students are more ready to hear the reasoning for the correct answer.

Classroom response systems can be very effective tools for engaging students during class and for gathering information on student learning useful for making “on the fly” teaching choices. Resources you may find helpful for using clickers in your mathematics courses include the following.

• Project Math QUEST – This NSF-funded project out of Carroll College has generated clicker question banks for linear algebra and differential equations. Their Web site also includes question banks for precalculus and calculus courses. Their resources page features links to over a dozen published articles on teaching math with clickers.

• “Clickers: A Classroom Innovation” – Here’s a longer article on teaching with clickers I wrote for the NEA’s higher education magazine, Advocate.

• Teaching with Classroom Response Systems Blog – I use my blog to discuss research on teaching with clickers, case studies of clickers in the classroom, conference sessions on clickers, and other resources. The blog is a companion of sorts to my book, Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments, available from Jossey-Bass on February 17th.

Thanks to Derek for the post! With any luck, I'll be back in the USA this afternoon and we will resume our regularly scheduled programming.

Using Promethean to make ACTION Presentations

2009-02-10T07:00:00.004-05:00

Today's guest blogger is Rose Jenkins, from Midlands Technical College.

Like most people, I started using an active classroom board for two things, to write on it and to present PowerPoint presentations. But active boards like the SMART Board and the Promethean Board are so popular in K-12 education that I wanted to know what their drawing power was. In my investigation, I saw a lot of cute activities intended for a much younger audience. But I was still intrigued by the power and the interactivity of these presentations. So I began my quest for incorporating these tools into my college mathematics classroom. Here is what I found.

1. An active board is more than just an alternative or auxiliary tool for a PowerPoint presentation. The key feature of an active board is INTERACTIVITY. Unlike (most) PowerPoint presentations, an active board presentation does not have to be linear. So the order and timing in which things happens can change according to the user’s preference or need. Things can be moved around the screen with or without restrictions.

2. ACTION! Additionally to manually moving things, actions can be assigned to objects. These actions can affect the object that they are assigned to or some other actions. Some of the actions are show, hide, move along a path, make more/less transparent, flip around the x or y axis, angle incrementally and many more. With so many tools, one needs only a little imagination to make things happen.

Here’s a basic example video I recorded to show you how to add action to an object using the Promethean ActiveStudio software.

Here is another video to show you a variety of actions that can be used in the ActiveStudio software.

Thanks Rose for the post! To find Maria in India, go here.

XCaliberMath on Math Competitions

2009-02-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

Today's guest blogger is Paul Ancka, a middle school / high school teacher from Pasadena, California.

I teach at a very small nonprofit private school (50 kids), grades 6-12. I have been using Saxon Math for the past 3 years with good results but the repetition and constant review it is sometimes a bit of a drag, and the kids tend to get bored.

I wanted to challenge them, so I brought in the American Math Competitions and I have created a blog called XCaliberMath for this purpose. I have been posting challenging math problems from previous competitions and few of the kids have become completely immersed in it. To give you an idea of it's popularity with the students, 30 kids hit the blog over 1700 times in less than two months. My conclusion.... KIDS LOVE THE CHALLENGE ! They are excited to meet kids from other schools and to compete in math.

I've also started a Math Circle and they love it. Usually a fifth of the kids are involved every Friday. They also are looking on the web for math problems to bring up. So Exciting!

I, myself was a Math Olympian while at school in Romania (IMO started in Romania in 1958), I still remember the exciting times I spent with coaches and my teammates. Richard Rusyzk's ArtofProblemSolving website introduced me to the American Math Competitions. Thank God for Technology!

On AoPS, they have a piece of software that's just amazing called the New Online Adaptive Learning System (ALCUMUS) and an online multiplayer math game called AoPS For the Win. This includes a "Countdown" game, modeled after MATHCOUNTS National Countdown rounds. An interesting sidenote is that in Greek mythology, Alcumus (or Álkimos, or Ankhíalos) of Ithaca was the father of Mentor (also sometimes called Mentês) - pretty cool!

Also, MathCounts has an Online Problem Library and Extraction Tool (Oplet, not free) that contains thousands of MathCounts problems.

One more thing I have done for my math students is LARPing and D&D adapted for math. My students build their Battle Stages and their Armies, travel through time, learn not only about ancient history and math but also focus on specific regions of the world. In these games they can use their imagination to travel to or build other worlds, traveling through worm holes, StarGates (here's the bridge with science), teleportation, etc. When they are creating their characters, they are applying Psychology, English and other subjects too.

I have tried to make my Math classes into a bridge across all subjects. It is a lot of work for me, but I just simply LOVE IT. And even better, I am Learning with them! They get to teach me so much ... 4 FREE! LOL ... OMG I have so much FUN.

Who says math cannot be Fun? I no longer hear my students say "I Hate Math".

Thanks Paul for the post! To find Maria in India, go here.

Where's the Math in Computer Science?

2009-02-03T07:00:00.001-05:00

Today's guest blogger is Kenrick Mock, Associate Professor of Computer Science from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Kenrick writes a blog called Teaching, Technology, and Learning.

As a computer science instructor sometimes a student will ask me why math is required for a CS degree. At the University if Alaska Anchorage we require Calc I, Calc II, and discrete math for all of our Bachelor of Science CS majors. I think one of the reasons for this question is that there really isn't much direct math content in the introductory CS courses aside from the occasional algebraic equation and an understanding of exponents and logarithms for the data structures course. Nevertheless, I think one of the misconceptions that students have is they equate computer programming with computer science. It is possible to be an excellent programmer with only basic math skills (one example is the Information Systems degree) but computer science is more concerned with the science behind the construction of hardware and software systems. This scientific foundation is based on mathematics. With this in mind, I've outlined below several ways that math is important to a budding computer scientist as he or she works their way through a CS degree.

1. Mathematical Maturity and Problem Solving

College Algebra is prerequisite for our CS1 course although we only have a little bit of direct algebra content. However, college algebra is important to develop the maturity to solve programming problems. A big part of programming (and computer science) is not the construction of code but the process of problem solving. For example, one of the problems I give in my CS1 class is to write a program that can solve the problem below,where each letter can be a digit from 0-9 and no two letters can have the same value.

Solving this problem requires more than just understanding what a loop does and how to write if-then-else statements. The student must know how to break this problem up into appropriate algorithmic steps so that a program can be written to solve each step. This type of problem solving is similar to algebraic word problems given in math classes, and some CS education researchers have suggested that students that struggle with planning and problem solving in math also struggle in CS classes. More directly related to programming, many programming languages are based on functions, a concept similar to mathematical functions. Similarly, the concept of variables and variable manipulation is also closely related to mathematical variables.

2. Computer Hardware and Low-Level Software

An understanding of Boolean algebra and various number systems (base 2, 8, 16) is critical to represent and manipulate data. Computer instructions and data are represented in binary and it is common to map values between binary, decimal, and hexadecimal. Boolean logic is necessary to understand how basic circuits (e.g. AND, OR, NAND gates) operate. Such low-level detail is often hidden by software abstractions in today's programming languages, so it is possible to be an excellent programmer with minimal knowledge of the underlying hardware and software. However, these topics are a part of the computer science curriculum.

3. Design and Analysis of Algorithms

A programmer quickly learns that there many ways to write a program that solve the same problem. The most obvious solution is not always the most efficient. For example, sorting a list of N items using the Selection Sort algorithm requires a number of steps proportional to N2 but if the Heapsort algorithm is used then the number of steps required is proportional to N*Log2(N). This is referred to as the runtime of the algorithm. With a large list of items the difference is significant; Heapsort will run much faster. While an understanding of exponents and logarithms is all that is necessary to get the big picture, determining the runtime requires an understanding of recursion and the ability to solve summations. Here's a sample summation that describes the runtime of one algorithm:

Solving this summation indicates that the algorithm requires a runtime proportional to n steps.

4. Computer Theory

The computer science theory course describes what is possible to compute and is closely related to discrete mathematics. Topics include finite state automata (commonly used to model the "intelligence" behind computer players in games), grammars (used to describe programming languages), and Turing machines (analogous in power to a modern computer). These tools are all mathematical in nature and often rely on inductive proofs. For example, the concept of NP-Completeness allows computer scientists to determine how "hard" a problem may be which has implications on the efficiency of possible solutions. One of my favorite examples involving grammars is the Lindenmayer System which can be visualized as a plant-like structure:

from (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-system)

5. Elective Specializations

Various upper-division elective courses also include mathematical content. For example, in an artificial intelligence course involving neural networks (used for a variety of machine learning tasks), the output of the network is typically computed using a sigmoidal activation function, which is loosely based upon the behavior of neurons in actual brains. The function to perform the actual learning in the network is derived from taking the derivate of the error function - hopefully you still remember your calculus! Other techniques in artificial intelligence also rely heavily upon statistics.

Another example is computer networking. Data across a network is split into packets and routed from the source to destination. The routing is based on graph theory, a sub-discipline of mathematics.

The subject of a program may also require some math. This scientific research project (http://www.math.uaa.alaska.edu/~orca/) modeled the behavior of killer whales using models based on logistic curves, probability, and non-linear differential equations.

6. Computer Graphics

Lastly, perhaps one of the best examples of math in computer science is the generation of computer graphics. Computer games are a great example. Here is a screenshot from World of Warcraft:

How is the world drawn? How can a program tell if a projectile hits a player? How can a program determine what is visible and what is not? The solutions to all of these questions are based on math, in particular, principles of geometry and linear algebra. For example, objects in real-time 3D graphics games are typically decomposed into thousands of polygons, usually triangles. These triangles are positioned, rotated, and scaled on the screen to conform to the particular 3D scene. So if you want to become a 3D game programmer, you will need to learn some advanced mathematics.

7. Conclusion

Although math may not appear to be necessary for introductory computer science classes, it is still necessary for logical thinking and problem solving. As a student progresses to more advanced computer science classes the math prerequisite becomes more apparent, especially when covering topics involving the science behind computing as opposed to programming.

Learning Objects for Math

2009-01-29T07:00:00.001-05:00

Today's blog post is from Tessa Bissette from West Central Technical College.

I am always looking for good learning objects. My definition of a learning object that involves technology is a digital, interactive lesson on one specific topic. In terms of mathematics, I consider a learning object to be something like this one on factoring the difference of two squares.

I especially like the way in which the author entices the students to pick out the perfect squares by clicking them with the mouse. When the student picks a number that is a perfect square, the number actively busts apart in a fireworks display. This type of interactivity keeps the student interested and entertained!

I have noticed that my students retain more when they are actively engaged. These types of learning objects do more than just present the material. They make the student complete a task with the presented material. This is the type of learning object that I want to see more of.

I have been searching for learning objects on many different sites like NROC (National Repository of Online Courses) and Merlot but none of these have as many useful objects for basic community college math as WISC-Online (the Wisconsin Online Learning Object Repository). In addition to having learning objects that you can purchase for a very small fee, they are willing to work with instructors to create learning objects. For me, this is a great opportunity to work with people who have the programming skills to create objects that I could only dream of making.

If you know of other websites that have this type of learning object, please share!

Thanks Tessa for the post! To find Maria in India, go here.

Kalkulus Shares Animations

2009-01-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

Today's guest blogger is Kelly Liakos, a Calculus instructor for 20 years, who shares his site of Calculus Animations with us.

In 1996, the Math Department at Santa Fe Community College (where I taught) decided to add a technology component to its curriculum, which is the point at which I began developing computer animations and computer labs for my courses.

There are basically four ways in which components on my website have been used.

1. In my classroom I had a computer and a computer projection system. I incorporated the animations in my lectures so that while discussing theory I would use the computer animations as examples as we go. When I first started developing animations my theory was that Calculus is dynamic--before the advent of the technology it was difficult to get this point across. However by actually seeing Calculus in motion as you explain the theory makes it much easier to grasp the concepts.

To get some idea of how this works see the page Calculus 1 - Limits and Derivatives. On this page the discussion is very similar to the discussion I used in lectures, with the animations being shown roughly in the order presented. Allowing for other examples and questions from my students that one page encompasses approximately four lectures.

Another good example is the page on Flux Integrals and the page about Graphs of Trig Functions.

2. At Santa Fe Community College there is also a Computer Lab component. On my Computer Lab page you'll find several examples of computer lab projects (for Mathcad) that the students do. During lecture, the student has seen the theory, watched the animations, and now in the computer lab the student gets hands-on experience working in groups of 2 or 3 to apply what they have learned. In some cases this serves to clarify what is they are supposed to have learned.

Initially, I spend a lot of time answering questions to make sure the student is familiar with Mathcad, but as time goes on the students do it without my supervision. In fact, many of the lab assignments are assigned as out of class projects with no supervision at all.

3. The animations and notes also serve as an out-of-class resource for the students to view (as little or as much as needed) to reinforce what they might have missed in lecture. As the resources are available it is the next best thing to actually recording lectures.

4. To a lesser extent you'll notice that in many of the notes, mechanics is discussed very little.

While we do spend time in lecture discussing techniques of differentiation and integration, with the reform movement, the focus is much more on understanding the theory and applications. In many of the applications once we have the set up and explanation we let the computer do the mechanics.

Of course the extent to which an individual instructor stresses the mechanics varies widely and I'll not even begin to discuss this here. Basically my theory is that when you combine the theory and technology you have Calculus at its most powerful.

The reason I decided to stop teaching at this time was so that I could concentrate on developing animations and the corresponding notes. My website contains my ideas on my various courses but I would also be interested in developing animations to supplement other professor's ideas as well.

Thanks Kelly for the post! To find Maria in India, go here.

Interesting Results with MathTV

2009-01-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

Todays guest blogger is Pat McKeague, author of several textbooks and the mastermind behind the site MathTV.com.

Hello, I’m Pat McKeague, and I’m filling in for Maria today. I have created a website called www.MathTV.com where my students and I post videos on mathematics from basic math through calculus. I'm the first one on the left.

One interesting observation is that my students have become better math students by making these videos. The other surprising thing is that they love their jobs.

All of us that teach know that we understand a topic better after we have taught it. I know that I never really understood calculus until I taught it two or three times. So it makes sense that my students would become better math students after presenting topics on video. In all cases, they are presenting material from classes they have already passed. Even so, they are better at the mathematics in the classes they are taking now. The stronger their foundation in basic skills, the better they are at advanced topics. They have strengthened their foundation by making these videos.

The students are paid to make these videos. It is a regular part-time job for them. I have always had trouble getting them to read the book before they come to class. But in their jobs, they don’t mind at all They want to make good presentations and so they are willing to use any resources, like the book, to help them prepare for their presentation.

It would be interesting to create a class in elementary or intermediate algebra based on this presentation model. All you would need is a digital camera with a Firewire connection, iMovie or Quicktime Pro, and maybe an extra light. Students could work in groups to present each topic that is covered in the class, or they could present selected topics and use the MathTV videos for the others.

Thanks Pat for the post! To find Maria in India, go here.

Petrak's Plug for Creating Passionate Users

2009-01-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

Today's Guest Blogger is Dan Petrak, from Des Moines Area Community College.

The blog, Creating Passionate Users (now nonactive) was authored by Kathy Sierra in 2006-2007. Here is a short description of what the blog is about:

The Creating Passionate Users bloggers are all fascinated by brains, minds, and what science can tell us about the practice of making users passionate about their lives and tools.

Kathy is a programmer, author, speaker, and great thinker. One of my favorite posts on her blog is about her Crash Course in Learning Theory.

Although it seems there were some unfriendly bloggers out there that caused Kathy to move on to some other projects, she still has a lot of great information posted here. As a math professor, I use this site to help me understand more about how the brain works and what might help students understand and be motivated to learn. The site also has some very funny graphs and insights to how we interact with technology.

Here is an example (using snowboarding) of how the fear we all have of doing someting new can be made better if the right approach is used.

The fear of snowboarding was reduced by:
* Doing it rather than talking about it.
* Early failure - once I'd fallen and discovered that it didn't hurt, I was more free to push myself.
* Progressing at the right pace.
* Just-in-time information - don't tell me everything up front.
* Passion - teach me to enjoy it rather than to do it perfectly.
* Praise - when a jump is right, you get applauded

Although this example was for learning to snowboard, I liken it to learning math, learning a new technology, or changing the way I teach something.

The CPU site is searchable and has a lot of free ideas and resources. Search her site for 80/20 and you will find a ton of information about how to balance your presentations to help motivate and engage your audience (students). Enjoy the site!

Thanks Dan for the post, to find Maria in India, go here.

Gabcast: Low-tech Solution for Online Recording

2009-01-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

Today's Guest Blogger is Keri Bjorklund, from Sheridan College. Keri is a friend from my grad school days, and freely admits she is NOT a math instructor. However, she did help me type an entire test bank once, and knows how to use MathType (hotkeys and all) so she may be a kindred math spirit anyways. Keri recently caught the blogging bug and has a blog for English Instructors and Literature Lovers called Ms. Professor B.

The Problem

This past semester I was given the task of teaching a poetry and drama class online. This seemed simple enough: have students post discussions following the reading and write a number of small essays analyzing the reading. There was one catch, however. The class was meant to fulfill a performing arts requirement for AFA degree seekers. How was this to be accomplished in an online class? This is especially difficult in a rural area where students do not always have access to the best Internet connection, computers, or computer skills. So, not only did I need to create a class that had never been taught online before, but I also had to develop a way that students could create a performance without requiring sophisticated and complicated technology. This is where Gabcast.com comes in.

The Solution

Gabcast.com is a website in which users create an account and phone in “episodes.”

Users use a toll-free number from several global locations and simply punch in the channel number and the channel password over the telephone. There is also a conference call option in which members enter a channel and a meeting password. The site is free up to 30 minutes for conference calls and up to 200 MB for episodes. Audio files created over the phone are automatically saved to the Gabcast channel. There’s no need for the caller to enter save or any complicated code. It’s just like leaving a voicemail.

The episodes can be published to the web, incorporated into blogs, or remain unpublished. I asked students not to publish their recordings due to copyright laws; however, some students’ readings were posted because of the nature of the material. Viewers can listen to the episodes by visiting my channel.

Usage is simple. I created a class account, provided the password, and had students call in their readings. Students had the option of recording a drama scene or reciting a poem. I uploaded each episode into Blackboard so everyone could listen and critique each recording. It was a highly successful exercise and students had positive feedback about the activity.

Although this was used for an English course, this can be used for recording lectures, directions to assignments, or participating in conference calls. A variety of material already exists that could be accessed as supplemental material. In fact, entering “math” in the search box provided at least 9 pages of results. Certainly, there is a use for Gabcast.com across disciplines.

Thanks Keri for your post! To find Maria in India, go here.

Enhance Presentations with Audacity and YouTube

2009-01-13T07:00:00.001-05:00

Today's Guest Blogger is Robert Foth, from Pima Community College.

I am very fortunate to work on a campus that allows me to explore new ideas and technology and how to use them in the classroom (online or face to face).

Last Halloween I was asked to give a quick talk on campus and I decided to make a little project out of that talk (using some of the tools involved). The talk was about using Audacity and YouTube to enhance classroom presentations and content. You can watch the talk here.

In the presentation I give a quick demo on how to use Audacity, where to go to download videos (or just the audio) of youtube clips, and how I use the Flip Video Recorder. The idea was to get the faculty (adjuncts and full-time) to think about presenting content in a more dynamic way they just the use of text.

Thanks Robert for your post! To find Maria in India, go here.

Leaving for a While ... Enjoy the Blogsitters

2009-01-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

I've just finished getting the guest blog posts ready for publication. For the next five weeks, there will be guest bloggers on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Stay tuned for a ton of great stuff!

Me? I'm going to India. Follow along if you'd like.

Prequel to MathType Tutorials

2009-01-10T09:39:00.003-05:00

I should have anticipated this, but it was late at night.

You may need to first be convinced that MathType has its uses (if you are a LaTeX user). For the record, LaTeX has it's uses too.

Here is my Equation Challenge! Type the following 15 problems using the program of your choice. (download it here in pdf)

I can type it in just under 5 minutes (watch that here). How long does it take you? If you can do it quickly in the equation editor you use, please record an example and comment it in.

I'm also giving you a link to a video in which I walk through the solutions to 20 derivative problems using MathType to write the math. You might be surprised to see that I can write the mathematics as fast as I can discuss it. I am (for the most part) not using the mouse.

(jump to the 1 minute mark to skip the mathematical explanations - and please keep in mind that this is not a pedagogical example - it is a video of the solutions to an exercise that the students work on after learning the derivative rules)

MathType Video Tutorials

2009-01-10T01:10:00.004-05:00

At the end of every traveling workshop I do, I like to do 30 minutes on using an Equation Editor. Everyone thinks they "know" how to use one. There's not anything they can be taught. It's one of the more fun sessions to do simply because everyone discovers something they didn't know before. And it always would have saved them a lot of time.

One of the participants came up to me afterwards and confessed that he had written 150 pages of math text and he could've done it in half the time if he had learned these tips first. Several participants asked what they should be doing with all the free time they will have since typing their tests won't take as long now (of course, they should be looking for some great interactive math stuff on the Internet with that extra time!).

Anyways, back in my hotel room that night, I again found myself wondering why the heck MathType doesn't post video tutorials. Then I remembered that I actually have a set of tutorials that I recorded for the faculty on my campus.

Disclaimer: These videos are not great quality. They were some of the very first videos I ever recorded with Camtasia. The clicking sound is annoying (I figured that out later, but can't remove it). And I'm really not compelled to re-record these because, well, it's not my job!

However, as one last Bon Voyage gift to my readers, I've reproduced them so that I could post the tutorials on YouTube.

If you use equation editor or MathType, no matter how well you think you know how to use these, do yourself a favor and take 30 minutes to watch the videos. For 99.9% of you, it will save you far more than 30 minutes of time in the future. (the other 0.1% actually took the time to read all the MathType help files or have been to one of my MathType workshops)

MathType Tutorial: Creating the Ctrl-E Hotkey (for easily opening & closing equations)

MathType Tutorial: Using Hotkeys Part 1

MathType Tutorial: Using Hotkeys Part 2

MathType Tutorial: Formatting Equations and Alignment

MathType Tutorial: Tables and Formatting

MathType Tutorial: Formatting All the Equations in a Document

Just for the record, I could make much better videos today and I would actually add quite a few more tips (like nudging, Lewis Dot Diagrams, and miscellaneous other tips). But given that I'm in a time crunch, and there are many, many other things I should be doing right now, this is what you're getting (my C-level video performances).

Real World Metrics

2009-01-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

From xkcd:

Maybe Common Craft can tackle Metrics in Plain English next?

Journey into Complex Numbers

2009-01-06T07:00:00.002-05:00

Here's a resource (built like a children's book - pictures and all) called John and Bettys' Journey into Complex Numbers.

I think that algebra students would enjoy this as an introduction to complex numbers. The whole book (with pictures) is available at the site. Thanks to samjshah for tipping me to this one.

2008 Top 10 Technology Tools for Math

2009-01-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

1. Jing gives students and instructors the ability to capture an image of any graph or equation they see on their screen and share it anywhere else (message boards, emails, papers, digital assignments). Using Jing you can also record videos of up to 5 minutes in length. [Free, Mac/PC] Not sure how to use Jing? Check out the tutorials at the end of this post.

2. Wolfram Demonstrations provides close to 3,000 interactive demonstrations on mathematics. Students and instructors can play with demonstrations by downloading Mathematica Player. Demonstrations can be written by anyone with a copy of Mathematica and are reviewed before they become part of the Demonstrations Project. [Free, Mac/PC]

3. WebAssign is a publisher-independent site for online homework. It was designed originally for physics and does a particularly good job of handling the problems unique to learning math-based content. Publishers work with WebAssign to create online homework for their texts. [$ for students, PC/Mac] Note: You can write your own problems for WebAssign, in which case, there would be no cost for students. WeBWorK is also worth a mention here for the more technically-inclined.

4. WizIQ provides a platform to easily hold online office hours. You have the option of audio and video on both ends, multiple users, interactive whiteboard, and file upload. Sessions are recorded and can be accessed for 30 days. [Free, Mac/PC]

5. Windows Journal combined with a tablet are incredible for enhancing the content of a math lesson. Unfortunately, you either have Windows Journal, or you don't (it comes with Windows Tablet XP and with most versions of Windows Vista). Luckily, there are other free alternate versions alternatives like Jarnal. A commercial alternative to Windows Journal (which has a lot of fans) is Microsoft OneNote.

6. Camtasia Studio 6 gives me the power to record my lectures live, edit them after, and produce them to a variety of formats. Version 6 is built with some features that work better with tablets. [$, PC] If you're on a Mac, check out Adobe Captivate. [$, PC/Mac]

7. Pen Attention solves the problem of the tiny cursor when you are projecting from a tablet program in your classroom. [Free, PC]

8. The Wacom Bamboo tablet is an inexpensive option to join the Tablet PC world. Combine this with the programs from #5 and #6 to create great online content. [$, PC/Mac]

9. Screencast.com lets me liberate my videos from a learning management system. I upload all my videos to screencast, then I can insert the link to one of my videos in an email, put it in an online course, place it on a message board, or share it on my blog. [$, PC/Mac]

10. MathType Lite is an oldie but goodie. Combine MathType with Jing and students can share equations anywhere. After the 30 days of the 30-day trial, MathType becomes MathType Lite. For students, this is ideal. [Free, PC/Mac]