Tag Archive for Technology

My Customer-Story Video for Livescribe

November 17, 2010 Bio, Helping students, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mathcast, published articles, Teaching Online, Technology 2 comments

I was asked by Livescribe if I would give my testimonial as a college instructor using the Livescribe pen for my math classes.   I had so much fun making the video with the team!

Amazing how they can shrink 2 hours of  “discussion” (with many retakes I might add!) into a minute and a half of produced video!

They interviewed 7 people in different professions to show how each of us enhances our work with the help of our Livescribe smartpen.

To see all 7 videos, go to the Livescribe Home Page and click on my photo on the bottom of the page.  (OK, I share the photo with three other people, but I made the home page!)

I still own my original 1 GB Pulse and now the new Echo smartpen, and I am so thankful for having such great technology to teach with!  I am also finding great ways to use my smarpens in  everyday life, too!

Here is my Livescribe Story posted on YouTube:


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Getting Published!

November 4, 2010 Bio, CPS Clickers, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mobi, published articles, Pulse smartpen, Teaching Online, Technology Comments Off on Getting Published!

I wrote an article for Community College Week magazine about how I use technology to enhance teaching and learning both inside and outside of my classes.   I was excited to find out last week that they accepted my article and it was published recently!

To find the article online, you need to click on the Community College Week website, and then click on the green “Technology Update” image to download the PDF.   The article I wrote starts on page 13.

Community College Week’s website


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An Inspirational Teacher

October 21, 2010 online tools, Teaching Online, Technology, WolframAlpha Comments Off on An Inspirational Teacher

I wanted to take a moment and share a little bit about an individual who has been a HUGE inspiration for me on my journey to teaching a more interactive math class that includes technology and making learning fun for students (and teachers!).

(These ‘images’ of Maria are taken from her blog)

Her name is Maria H. Anderson and she writes a wonderful blog called Teaching College Math.

I met her in person last year when she came to my college to give an all day Saturday workshop.  It was incredible!  She inspired me to start writing a blog to share my own resources and ideas.

Maria is a college math instructor at Muskegon Community College (in Michigan). and wears many other hats as well, including CEO of Andersen Algebra Consulting LLC, an educational consulting business, through which she does consulting work for textbook companies, educational software companies, and speaking engagements at conferences and workshops.

She recently wrote Algebra Activities, a 1000-page Instructor resource binder of activities and teaching guides for algebra :

As if she wasn’t REALLY busy already, did I mention she is working on her Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership ?!  Truly an amazing and inspirational woman and math professor!

I want to share one of her recent blog posts on WolframAlpha because I really thought it was exceptional:

Shifting Assessment in a World with WolframAlpha

I love using Wolfram Alpha not only for math, but any type of search engine (there is even some humor involved – type in “what is the meaning of life?”).

The next generation is growing up in a world where information is available at the touch of button on their computer, their iPad, and even their smartphone!   There are websites out there that can do anything they need, and answer any math problem they can think of (or that we give them!).  Her article has some great ideas about ways to change the focus of what we want our students to learn in this new technology, and information-rich environment.

Try out WolframAlpha (after reading her article) and see how amazing it is for yourself!

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Staying Tuned!

October 9, 2010 feedback, grading, Helping students, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mathcast Comments Off on Staying Tuned!

Last week I read an article (and podcast) on Livescribe’s educational blog (Applications in Education) that is very exciting and I believe will really transform helping students.   There were two parts to the article, the first focused on using technology in education, and the second part was more focused on the Livescribe smartpen and notetaking.

The entire article and podcast was amazing, but the part that REALLY caught my eye was at the very bottom of the article.  I have highlighted it in green below…

Are you confused as to why it would be exciting to be able to print off the special dots on the livescribe paper combined with ANY other document?   As a teacher, I see this as an amazing opportunity to give my students feedback on a whole new level!   Papers can be graded on the dot paper with the livescribe pen, and the students will be able to hear and see the feedback, rather than just read a few comments that the teacher put down to show corrections.  I am sure there will be many more applications of this incredible feature, but I need to play with it first to get more ideas.

Let’s just say I am certainly “Staying Tuned!”

*If you have read an article or have used an amazing product that helps you as a teacher, please send me information about it.   I would love to find more incredible teaching tools to use and blog about!

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A Great Way to Answer Homework Questions

September 14, 2010 Helping students, Livescribe, Livescribe, Mathcast, online tools, Technology 3 comments

A student in one of my Algebra classes emailed me a screenshot of her online homework question:

The question, as you can see, is written horizontally, but she told me in her email that she thinks she would understand it better if she could see it worked out vertically.  So, I pulled out my Livescribe Pulse smartpen (which is never too far away) and quickly worked out the problem for her vertically and sent  her a link to the pencast on the Livescribe community page.

Here is the solution I sent her:

MultiplyPolynomialsVertically
brought to you by Livescribe


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My Latest Article for Livescribe: From Traditional to Innovative

September 9, 2010 CPS Clickers, Flash, Flash, Livescribe, Livescribe, Lumens DC265 Ladibug document camera, Math Projects, Mathcast, Mobi One comment

I was asked recently to write an article for Livescribe about the Math Foundations workshops  that were created by the team I was a part of this summer at Mesa Community College.    To read about the transformation of Mesa Community College’s Arithmetic course, the article I wrote is posted on the Livescribe Education Blog

The article contains a link to the new Math Foundations website that houses links to all the Livescribe pencasts, Flash animations and workshop handouts created by the team this past summer.   Check it out and let me know what you think!


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I Guess I Should Thank The Cat!

August 11, 2010 Bamboo Tablet and Pen, Intuos4, Mathcast, Technology 3 comments

Well, it is a good thing I love most animals! Yesterday morning when I went to check my email I noticed water all over my home office desk, where my Macbook and my Bamboo tablet were sitting. I had mistakenly left a full glass of water on my desk and the cat knocked it over during the night.

I quickly cleaned up the mess as best I could, found out the Macbook is fine (yay!!!!!), but the Bamboo tablet is still sitting in a pan of dry rice trying to revive it. I absolutely cannot live without a pen tablet, so I started researching between a few Wacom tablets (a name I already trusted with my Bamboo).

I was thinking about purchasing a larger tablet this time so I would have a bigger active area to write on.   At the same time, I was also considering going for a more sensitive tablet that would pick up angles of the pen, since I mostly use my pen for my hybrid math courses and I have issues writing naturally while trying to hold the pen vertical.

I narrowed my choices down quickly to look at the Bamboo Fun (for the larger area) against the higher end Intuos4 (small) because they both would cost the same price:

After looking at these figures and then going to the store and seeing that the footprint for the Bamboo fun was far more room that I had available on my desk, I decided to purchase the Intuos4 (small).  An added bonus I found out was that the small Intuos4 still has a larger active area than my original Bamboo tablet (about 2.5 sq inches more!).

I got my new toy (uh, I mean tool) home, and it was incredibly easy to set up. I noticed a HUGE difference immediately in pressure sensitivity and how well it picked up everything I was writing (it even made my handwriting look better than writing on pen and paper!!).   The feel of the tip against the new pad was far more realistic as well, it felt just like writing on paper – only better!    I am SO glad I decided to upgrade to the Intuos4!   What an amazing difference it made; I can’t wait to make my next mathcast with it!!

So, I guess I should thank the cat for frying my Bamboo tablet, or I would not have needed to replace it for a very long time.   It had served me well for many years, and I am sure it would have lasted many more, if the cat hadn’t gotten involved!

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I Glogged my syllabus

August 3, 2010 Glogster, Mathcast, Teaching Online, Technology 2 comments

I created my first Glog ever!  I believe my students will have a lot of fun creating one as a project for my course.  In the same manner as I created samples of a mindmap, and a Prezi, I took my syllabus and turned it into a Glog for my students.

link to the glog

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Presenting….my syllabus!

August 1, 2010 CPS Clickers, Livescribe, Lumens DC265 Ladibug document camera, Math Projects, Mathcast, Mobi, Prezi One comment

I have been spending the past few weeks trying to think of better ways to get my future teachers to be more engaged in their learning. I have decided to model several ideas after a great friend of mine who writes the amazing Teaching College Math blog, Maria Andersen.

Not only am I going to use hands on manipulatives and technology (like I have been) to teach with, but to help my students organize their thoughts and the material for the course, I am going to have them create a Prezi, a Wiki, a Blog and a Mindmap. One fourth of the class will be doing each of these for every test. Each student will rotate through the 4 types of online tools for every test (but not in the same order as the rest of their group). All students will also create a google website to house links to all of their creations and any notes or other information they want to add, along with their service learning journal. The website will be private and they will only share viewing privileges with me. The other 4 online components will be public and shared with the rest of the class.

I am hoping that not only will they have a better feel for the material in each quarter of the course, but it will be theirs to keep online and reuse the ideas and links when they become teachers. It will be helpful for them to study for each test because all 4 types of models will be created by the class for each test, and they will be able to use one another’s to help them study.

I decided I would model some of the types for the students, by creating my syllabus as a Prezi, and also in a mindmap format. (I will write a new blog entry when I finish my mindmapped syllabus).

I thought it would not be as helpful to show them the syllabus in Blog format (they can see this blog for ideas), and my syllabus is already on a website (just not a free google one). I am still contemplating whether to show an example of my syllabus as a wiki.

Here is the first pass at my syllabus as a Prezi:

Math156syllabus on Prezi *the Prezi is now having issues viewing…try THIS LINK

Copy of Math156syllabus on Prezi

I think I have narrowed it down to have them use the following free online tools:

Prezi (for a free online presentation style of tool)
MindMeister (for a free online mindmapping tool)
Glogster (for a free online fun poster tool))
Wordpress or Blogger (for a free online blog)

Google website for their free online website

I hope they are as excited as I am to learn these great tools and put them into “action”!


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Teaching with Manipulatives on the Web!

July 24, 2010 Lumens DC265 Ladibug document camera, Mathcast, Teaching Online One comment

Over the past few weeks I have used my Lumens HD 265 Ladibug document camera several times to show hands on materials (manipulatives) and activities online!

Here are a couple of examples of how I used it online:

Ex 1)    I taught an online session on how I teach with technology in my classroom.  One of the examples I used was to have all my students using fraction pieces while I taught with them from the front of the room.

So the students can see what I am doing with the pieces, the Ladibug document camera can show my hands moving the pieces live during class, projected onto the screen. (These still images and the video below were all taken by the Lumens DC265 Ladibug!!)

To demonstrate this to the participants online, I was able to share my desktop in the session, and show the document camera’s live feed running on my computer screen!

I was even able to toggle back and forth between the Ladibug document camera’s view, and the other programs I was running on my computer to teach the session!

Not only can you show what you are holding and teaching with live through the camera, but the Ladibug HD 265 also records video and audio!  Here is the same lesson above, but the video version, which I can now post online for students to see.

HalfPlusThirdblog

(Why won’t the blog let me embed an .mp4 file??)

Ex 2) I was creating a video for my students on how to use the graphing calculator.   I no longer need to capture the screen of the calculator using  special software!

I can show them which buttons to hit and the screen, all at the same time!

I can even zoom in on the screen so they can see a graph more clearly:

Or zoom in on the equation used to create the graph…

All of this can be done live during class, or I can record the calculator lesson directly from the Ladibug camera and then post the lesson to my website!

Above you can see the menu that “floats” on my desktop when I am using the document camera, making it very easy to switch to any other program or back to the document camera, also allowing me to zoom, take still images and video with the camera!

I can’t wait to teach my Math For Elementary Teacher’s class in a few weeks!  No more overhead projector, no more graphing calculator overhead…just the document camera to show all the manipulatives and the calculator both as I teach, and as online lessons for outside of class!

 
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