Universal Access

Since I have begun teaching 7 years ago, I have taken classes that covered many different topics and ideas, especially those regarding varying teaching styles. Brain Compatible Strategies for Teaching Math, Differentiated Instruction, and Universal Access. While these topics are all different, they do have an underlying theme. I believe that theme is that we teachers have different kinds of students. Students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, students from different family make-ups, students with different learning styles and students with different attitudes toward school. Teachers have a very difficult task, teaching to this many different students. No one said it would be easy and many teachers, that I’ve seen are sometimes unwilling to try different approaches. But that is what we signed up for and that is what we need to do.
I have 21 students in my Introduction to Algebra class, 11 of which have IEPs. I do have a second teacher with me, but even with this small number of students, there are many different kinds of learners in this class. Technology has helped me in my attempt to reach these students. One use of technology that I use frequently is http://www.funbrain.com/math/index.html. This is a very basic website that I use to practice simple arithmetic facts. The beauty of the site is that in the same baseball game, students can change the difficulty level and the amount of hints and clues. My very basic students can have the same amount of success as my more developed students.
I also came across an article that shows how technology can give universal access to information that most of us take for granted. One of the biggest drawbacks that blind people have when using the Internet is not the words, many programs can read the text aloud to their users, but the images. In order to solve this problem, web creators need to label millions of images. Asking people to spend their time doing this would become very boring, very fast. Professors at Carnegie Mellon have developed a way to entice people to help. They have created the ESP game. Two visitors to www.espgame.org are matched up and shown a random image from the Internet and then they are asked to label the image. Partners are not allowed to communicate and are given words that they are not allowed to use, taboo words. When the partners give the same word, points are awarded. The labels are used to help programmers and web sites describe the images on their site. Eventually, the labels given by the humans will be used to develop computers to come up with common-sense judgments or descriptions.

Are we as teachers reaching our technology standards?

Are we responsible users of technology?

Are we responsible users of technology? How well do we model fair use and copyright guidelines when technology makes it so easy for us to use other people's material?

Could teachers as a group be more guilty of copyright violation? I don't think so. I've seen teachers at school show movies in class, download music (legally and illegally) and play in class, show TV shows, copy extensive passages from books, use lyrics from songs and copy supplemental workbooks that were given as materials to look over. Teachers will often cite the Latin expression "Ignorantia juris non excusat or Ignorantia legis neminem excusat" which, of course, translates to "Ignorance of the law is no excuse." But are the "crimes" greater than the benefit derived by the students? I feel that most of the time they are. CBS produces lesson plans for their hit show "NUMB3RS" and gives specific information on how the show may be used http://www.weallusematheveryday.com/tools/files/waumed_taping_terms.pdf. Teachers are allowed to show the math scenes of the show, but the rest of the episode is considered off limits. Isn't CBS' goal to have as many people watch the show as possible? I will admit, I will show the math scene in the show, then do the project or projects associated with it. The next day I will reward the class with the rest of the show, so that they can see what happens. Violation of copyright? I guess so, but everybody wins. I get an engaging lesson, CBS's sponsors get people to see their commercials and my students get to do something is math class that gets them excited about math.

Is Digital Storytelling a meaningful tool and measure for learning?

I, like Carolyn, can't get the Prensky article out of my head. Digital natives, digital immigrants is such a simple tag to put on us, but so descriptive and so accurate. As a digital immigrant, I so much want to be a digital native, like my son and my students. But, alas, it will never be. I can take one step closer with Digital Storytelling.

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about Digital Storytelling. It sounded like a nice way to tell a photo story, maybe rehash some pictures in a new, techy way. But I didn't see how it could be very educational, especially in math. The more I looked, the more I read, the more I believed in its ability to teach and for kids to learn, but in subjects where more expression and creativity is normally found, perhaps English or Social studies. How to apply this to math?

As I sat around this summer and planned out my curriculum for the upcoming year. One project that I considered was giving my pre calc students digital cameras and letting them explore the world and find examples of conic sections (parabolas, ellipses, circles, etc.) Conic sections are fun and I thought this might be a nice project to add to the chapter. Little did I know, that I was going to employ digital storytelling. I can now have the students take pictures, upload them and do the voice overs to explain their photos.

Another item that I include every year is a biography on a famous mathematician. How much more fun would it be to create a digital story?

Another way for math teachers to employ digital storytelling is in geometry. Architecture is full of shapes. Students could determine the scale between the picture and the actual building.

Digital storytelling is more difficult for math and science teachers, but still worth the effort.

Digital Natives - Visual Literacy

Our CTER experience is beginning to wind down, only 6 months and 1-½ classes left. Has anyone noticed that the discussions amongst ourselves are shorter? While each class has been full of useful and new information, I catch myself trying to get excited about each new project and topic that we begin. I know that’s a bad attitude and I would be angry with my own children and my students for acting like that, but it’s true. So while I really (repeat: really) liked the Web quest module, I saw an article about Digital Natives and wondered, “Didn’t we talk about this before?” WELL, apparently I wasn’t paying attention earlier. WOW, did that article by Prensky hit a chord with me. I found myself reading it over and over. I’ll bet I read it 4 times. I made copies (55 copies) of it and put it in the mailboxes of all my teachers at school. I explained it to my son on the way home from his basketball practice; it made an impression with him too. I caught him explaining to his mother how he was a “digital native” while she was only a “digital immigrant.”

Most importantly, I began to rethink my approach to teaching my lower level math students, my Introduction to Algebra students. It hadn’t dawned on me that this was what those students needed. I took this class to the computer lab on a Friday and played addition and subtraction games for 47 minutes. That night at our football game, I had 4 students come up to me and tell me how much fun they had in math class and that math used to be their worst subject, the one they hated the most and now it was their favorite. Friends were jealous; friends in honors classes were asking me if they could take my class. I just thought it was a good day in class. I hadn’t realized that that was the way those students learned the most, the way that engaged them the most. Instant gratification, short burst of learning, hidden from them because they were having fun, playing games.

Is it possible to make every day like that? No. It is like a tolerance for drugs. Give them a day of fun; you need to top it the next time and the next time. But engaging them in this matter 2 or 3 times a week might just do the trick.

Final Webquest

Here's my final Webquest:http://students.ed.uiuc.edu/bcfrey2/bradfeportfolio/webqueststartpage.html

Webquest Troubles No More

Apparently it was the student server's problem. Here is my 2nd draft of my webquest: http://students.ed.uiuc.edu/bcfrey2/bradfeportfolio/webqueststartpage.html