Doodling in class

I first saw this video on the blog iLearn Technology, but I felt it deserved some attention on my own blog.  (If the video doesn't show up, you can see it here)

I love this video. I love how it shows mathematical inquiry for the sake of curiosity, something that is missing from a lot of secondary math classrooms (including my own on some days!) This video reminds me why I love math, and why many of my mathematics professors in college loved math.  I think we would have more students that loved math if we could somehow get students interested in these seemingly unimportant but interesting problems. How can we create a more inquiry-based curriculum, and how can we encourage more intellectual curiosity in our classrooms? How can the iPad help with this? 

I guess this goes back to what I was discussing yesterday - that while the current mathematics apps on the iPad help with routine practice, there are not a lot of apps out there that are promoting mathematical curiosity or concept building at the secondary level. I will keep looking!

Designing apps?

Right now I am at a bit of a "teacher's block" when it comes to using the iPads in my classroom. I have a repertoire of about four activities that I can match to various learning objectives in my class, and there are a few great conceptual math apps out there (trigonir being one that I have used in my PreCalculus class), but there are not enough interesting, demonstration-like apps out there to help secondary math students really understand the math they are working with. I would love to see something more like the demonstrations available through Mathematica Demonstrations Project. Wouldn't it be amazing for students to be able to manipulate a parabola on an iPad and see how the coefficients and constants change? Or, to be able to push around a function and see how it affects the graph of the derivative?  The mathematics apps that are available right now are mainly focused on giving example problems and practice problems, and telling the student whether they did the problem correctly or incorrectly. While this is fine, it is not using the full capacity of the iPad!

All of this makes me want to learn how to program apps and see if I could create what I am envisioning. Have any teachers looked into the programming process? I would be curious to hear about it if you have! Also, feel free to comment if you know of any more demonstration or concept-building math apps out there.

Notetaking on iPads

Yesterday I experimented with having students take notes on the iPads.

I initially thought that notetaking with the iPads was unrealistic, and while I still think that it won't become a daily thing for us, there are some benefits to having it as an option.

We used the app Noterize (which I really like - very user-friendly with a lot of capabilities) in combination with the website dropbox.

One barrier to notetaking on the iPads was the fact that each student does not have his or her own personal iPad. How will the notes get from the shared device to a personal device or binder? We solved this problem with dropbox. Dropbox is an online storage service that allows you to store up to 2 GB for free. Noterize has a built-in way to download or upload photos from Dropbox.

The reason why I decided to use the iPads for this particular set of notes is because we were looking at several large graphs and word problems. Instead of photocopying several pages for students, I thought it would be easier to have them write on a set of slides with the graphs that I have created.

Students downloaded a PDF with the slides on them (the notes outline), then were able to take notes on the screen. They then uploaded their finished version of the notes to their own dropbox account.

The notetaking process went OK - as always, there are a few kinks to work out. Like any new skill, writing on the iPads by hand takes some getting used to, which means that taking notes took longer than I would have liked. However, because it is so simple to erase and because there are so many colors to use, I found most students took much neater, clearer notes than normal. 

Mercury News Article on iPads in Schools

Take a look at this article in the San Jose Mercury News discussing the use of iPads in schools in the Bay Area. While the article does not mention my school, it does share my belief that iPads or another form of tablet will become a large part of the secondary classroom soon.

Online Resource about using iPads in Schools

I just found this website, Livebinders, which provides a way to organize online materials in a binder. This website would be very helpful for organizing and sharing online resources for any topic.

One of the binders shared on the website is called iPads in Schools, and has a ton of blogs and other websites dedicated to the topic. It will take me  a few weeks to get through all of the resources collected here!

Collaborative learning with Shareboard

Shareboard is an app that allows up to four iPads on the same wireless network to share the same blank screen. Anything that one iPad user draws or adds to the screen shows up on the other iPads.

A typical problem in Algebra I is that students try to skip steps and do an entire problem in their head. A way to combat this lack of work-showing is to have pairs of students take turns writing consecutive steps of a problem on the same piece of paper. This way, students are forced to follow common process so their partner can understand what they did and what to do next.

I decided to use this same idea, except on the iPads. It worked well using shareboard. Each partner wrote in a different color, so it was very clear that they were switching off writing consecutive steps. It allowed for a more in-depth discussion about the problems, because the partners were looking at the exact same work in front of them.

I plan on using shareboard again, especially for topics where I find that students tend to not show enough work. (perhaps simplifying radicals?)


Here are some examples of the student work:

App Review: Sundry Notes

Description: Sundry Notes is a notetaking app. You can type, write by hand, import pictures, and even add sound recordings. It is free.


In the classroom: I originally downloaded Sundry Notes thinking that students could use it to take notes, but after playing around with it I found that the inking was slow and would make for a very messy, painstaking process of taking notes. However, this app is ideal for students who are creating something - a poster, a project, a summary of anything. The fact that you can import things from the internet, draw, type, and even add sound recordings allows for a lot of creativity on the part of students. It also have a very intuitive user interface, whereas some of the other notetaking apps with the same capabilities are not as user-friendly.

Recommendation:  I would recommend this app for project/picture/poster making, but not for notetaking. The search for a good note taking app continues...

Here is a sample from Sundry Notes:

 

Notice how you can add sound recordings: