Learning-technology initiative My learning project is to create a class wiki to teach statistics.  Being a Math & Statistics teacher for over a decade, I have seen that teaching statistics can be done easily when we do it collaboratively.  When students collect data and try to analyze a statistics problem, the whole learning process becomes very interactive as well as enjoyable.  Students seem to enjoy learning statistics when they can relate to its application to day-to-day life or to everyday problems. My plan is to use the class wiki as a technology tool to aid in learning statistics.  I would like to call this wiki an “Idea Exchange Wiki”. This wiki will be the platform for students to exchange ideas and help each other to understand the concepts of statistics. Unlike mathematics, which is more numerical, statistics is a combination of theories and numbers based on these theories.  I would like to experiment with this class wiki as a technology tool to teach statistics. Before implementing the class wiki for the entire statistics portion, I would like to start with a small part of my course.  I would like to experiment with the topic of Binomial distributions. A class wiki is an open web-based platform  which allows users to interact collaboratively. Teachers and students can upload pictures and videos. Links to other informative websites can be incorporated in the reading material apart from writing and listing their entries. The class wiki provides a collaborative platform for both teachers and students to interact. Many times it is difficult to use the collective knowledge of the class, especially the knowledge of the good and intellectual students for the benefit of the weak students. I hope to achieve this by the aid of this class wiki, through which good students can try to help and trouble shoot the doubts of the weak students. My idea is to introduce the statistics curriculum using the interactive class platform of the class wiki. As far as the teacher is concerned the wiki offers a web environment in which the teacher is able to share information about the course.  Like any regular course requirement, the wiki can be used to display information about the course schedule, policies, homework assignments, and important documents. As far as this portion is concerned I want my students to collaboratively try to find solutions to word problems using binomial distributions. Assessment  in terms of students learning : There are various ways you can access a student’s learning outcome.

• Formative Assessment: Wiki is a very advanced digitized Web 2.0 learning tool. Students’ contribution can be recorded and monitored along with their comments and the time they take to make their comments. Their contribution is in terms of class discussion and updates on the latest status of their projects.
• Peer Assessment: Students can make comments on each other’s contributions to the wiki and can also add their own input to the class discussion.
• Summative Assessment: Students’ learning can also be assessed by a long term project on binomial distributions. A rubric can be used to assess students’ contributions.

John Hattie at the University of Auckland in New Zealand released a book entitled Visible Teaching.  It’s a very good meta-analysis of research into the factors influencing the learning process.  He distills the insights from over 800 research projects to provide a comprehensive perspective on the teaching/learning process. Hattie organizes the factors influencing student achievement into six categories of inquiry:

1.       The child

2.       The home

3.       The school

4.       The curricula

5.       The teacher

6.       The approaches to teaching

Hattie’s six  factors influencing student achievement, common technologies to those factors  the opportunities that those technologies represent, and the challenges or problems created through technology

Seven leadership styles featured in Rooke and Torbert  article in Harvard Business Review  are Opportunistic, Individualist , Diplomat,  Expert, Achiever, Strategist, Alchemist.

Here  are the example of  Tweets (140 characters or less) that illustrate the perspective of that leadership style in response to scenarios that  we  encounter in any organisation .

The  Rational   behind the tweet .  For each scenario how the tweets reflect the values of that particular style of leadership exhibits.

Hiring:

Following organizational process is difficult for individualists, particularly when compared to diplomats. Diplomats obey the cultural norms, even when it’s difficult. As we see the diplomat is pressured, but still follows the rules. This scenario could easily offer a 3^rd perspective: the expert. Had the HR expert heard what happened, s/he may tweet, ‘Individualist went all cowboy and skipped our process. If that’s the kind of manager he wants to be, fine. Someday he’ll learn the hard way.’”

Training

Individualist managers are all about getting results and making things work in fast ways, so they try to reach subordinates quickly, overlooking the right way of doing this. Diplomatic managers are all about following the rules and putting the right foot forward. So they have made a system by which people who are interested in professional development will register themselves through a proper channel. The Diplomatic manager wants to go through a proper route, unlike the Individualist, who wants always to be in charge.

Bonus

A bonus is an anticipated event in any organization; it increases morale and leads to high efficiency, because every worker will be interested in getting more incentives through the bonus by contributing to the company. But many times there is tendency among employees to compare or find out what their coworkers have gotten. Individualist managers are very clear about the distribution of the bonus and are trying to give a clear idea to their subordinates that they will get what the management has decided. Diplomatic managers try to create a more positive and motivating scenario by appreciating the employees for their hard work. It can be seen from this tweet that Individualist managers are not clear about the power equation that they have with their management team, and their Individualist self-centered attitude can be a concern.

An extra working day

Calling employees for work on holidays is a very problematic situation because most people would resist it. As you can see, Individualist managers are not aware of employees’ problems, because everything is about getting the work done for them. We can also make out from the tweet that Individualist managers have assessed the major decision of  calling employees on their own without thinking through the repercussions of this message. Diplomatic leaders are not very good with getting across tough messages to their subordinates; all these difficult types of news are always sugar coated. I think here Individualist managers can get into lot of trouble because they have to consider labor laws and company policy before making such a statement.

The purpose of this course, broadly speaking, is to develop  an apprentice as a technology leader. This is an ambitious goal, one that will be difficult to realize unless I fully understand what  it means by technology, learning, and leadership.  Thus, this class will examine the aims of education, the history/evolution of technology, the principles of leadership, and the intersection of these three elements.  Toward this end, this course pulls from a number of disciplines (in and outside of education) to satisfy the course description:

New technologies not only have the potential of changing what and how students learn, but they can also alter the task of teaching in significant ways. In this course, I will examine the complex charge of being responsible for managing relationships between technology, teaching and learning. I will look at technology from multiple perspectives to assess its potential benefits and challenges to different audiences. Professional development strategies, project management, planning, evaluation, relationship building, along with the ethical and social implications of technology integration will be examined.

Linking the math curriculum to everyday activities so that my students will find math relevant and will make meaningful connections in my math class

My  postulation is that linking math from the textbook to everyday life  will  encourage team performance as well as enhance our mathematical skills. With the aid of the Biology teacher,  I was able to establish values for an experiment concerning digestion of starch by the use of enzymes. The students  themselves appointed group members by selecting one Biology student and three Commerce students  so there would be an equal flow of knowledge of general Biology. The team effort was consistent among most groups as all members were interested in treading a path that they were novices to (graphs concerning Biological experiments).

This activity paper is given to Grade 11students        .

To find the optimum temperature on Enzymes Reactions

Procedure :

1) Make group of 2 to 3 students.

2) Get the data of Temperature and Time by performing the experiment in the Biology lab.

3) Plot the graph of Temp Vs Rate of reaction on graph paper.

4) Get the equation of the curve  by using the appropriate mathematical   formulas

5) Use Calculus to get the optimum temperature.

6) Verify the experimental result to that you get using calculus.

7) Calculate the approximate percentage error in calculating optimum temperature by both the methods.

The objective of this activity is linking my math curriculum to everyday activities or inter discipline,  so that my students will find math relevant and will make meaningful connections in my math class, there are various perspective and parameters involved in the problem of effectively linking the curriculum to everyday activities.

Conclusions and Limitations :

I saw that students were involved in doing the activity, which was linking various topics of math to a Biology practical problem. I saw that students were engaged, worked collaboratively, and were focused. I can conclude from this, that linking the Math curriculum to everyday activities increases the involvement of students and also has positive effects on their performance level.

Will linking my math curriculum to everyday activities help students find math relevant?

I can say that there is no unique solution in form of a yes or no answer. Some inferences can definitely be drawn from this research that linking the math curriculum to everyday activities does help improve scores and performance, and we have more engaged learners.  But there are other parameters, such as a student’s background, sex , academic caliber, and type of program (math curriculum ) he or she is enrolled in, that will definitely affect their score. There is also a limitation in that not every topic in math can be linked to everyday activities, because some topics in math have to be learned as pure theoretical concepts

I believe that teaching is a two-way process: the teacher benefits from the students as much as the students benefit from the teacher.  The best way to benefit from students’ understandings is by conducting class discussion. I was teaching a topic about three dimensional solids,  and there was this interesting question about how to find the volume of a cone given  the “net” of a solid. St

udents were confused looking at the figure, so I decided to use class discussion, and I tried to involve all my students in the discussion.

The question: Based on  the “net” of the cone as shown in the  figure, What is the volume of that cone?

Students were confused; it was  a grade 11 classroom and some of them did not know what the “net” was. Rather than explaining it to my students, I decided to ask the same question to the more studious students in my classroom. One of the studious students was Ahmed; he is school prefect and is supposed to be good in math. I asked Ahmed, what is meant by the “net” of a solid? As usual, he gave me a definition of the “net.”  I told him to explain this to the class with an example.  He associated it with the net of a cuboid and then told us that “when you  break open a cubical box  from all the sides and make it one dimensional,  you get the ‘ net’ of the cuboid “ .

I was not prepared for this class discussion or the activity, which is an example of what Lampert wrote:  “ Depending on how the preparation is done the teacher will have more or fewer resources to call on while teaching” Lampert (p. 119). I had a small box and  I showed the students the “net” by opening the box from the side.  But the  net  of the cone  in the problem above  was  too intangible and abstract for my students to comprehend,  so I decided to ask them to draw the above figure on a piece of paper. The girls in my class volunteered to draw. I told them to cut the paper in the shape of a circle; then  I cut a sector from it . After that was done, I told them to join the edges of the sector. l told Disha to join the end of the edges.  After she joined them, I asked my students, “What does this look like?”  The class got the idea that it was a cone.

Then I asked my students to correlate the arc length  of the net with the circumference of the base of the cone, and I asked them, “What can you say?“  The students struggled; then Shazil, another bright student, told me “circumference of the base of the  cone is the arc length of the net“. Then I told them to calculate the arc length of the net and equate it with the circumference of the circle.  I told my students to calculate the radius of the cone using the formulas, and then the class worked in a collaborative manner to get to the volume of the cone.

I felt that leading a class discussion of this problem made my class interesting and made the abstract question more tangible. I found that my class was very much engaged in the class discussion, and I could see from correcting their books that they understood the problem, could solve it, and got the correct answer for the volume of the cone.

Voicethread are one the most expedient way to communicate with your students or with anyone.  The Voice thread site is  where you can upload almost any digital media ranging from a photo to a powerpoint presentation and share it online. The most important part is that  about it is that it allows other viewers/users to make comments. Comments can be made by using voice (microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video. Web 2.0 tools allow for collaboration and interaction, and voicethread takes it to the next level by allowing more options to develop your voice.

Click on the image below to see how I used a Voice thread to share my research details with my research buddy , my professor and my class mates  of Michigan State University  TE 855 class

Three people  are involved in this Voice Thread,  who are at three different locations  poles apart

1) Nilesh Bandekar (me)  who made this voice thread is in DUBAI U.A.E

2) Megan Frantz my research buddy who teaches High School Math at North Forsyth High School Georgia in USA

3) Our professor Dr. Kristen Bieda who is at Michigan State university campus East Lancing,  MI USA

My research question is:

How do I link my math curriculum to everyday activities so that my students find math relevant and make a meaningful connection in my math class?

My hypothesis as to the answer of my research question is:

While math is a very theoretical subject with abstract concepts, it is indeed very difficult for students to relate it to everyday life.  That being said the curriculum can be adapted to everyday situations. Once I have achieved such a way of converting numerical equations into everyday English, I will be able take mathematics, an otherwise abstract concept, into a more tangible form.

I will gather evidence/data to answer the question (and test my hypothesis) by:

One way of proving my hypothesis is to take a mathematical equation/question and present it to the class over a two
day period.  The first day, the equation will be taught in a purely mathematical format.  At the end of the day, I will make a general assessment to see how many students have grasped the concept of the equation/problem presented to them.  The following day, I will present the same mathematical equation/question in a more practical method, relating it to everyday life and converting the equation into an “English” form.  I will then reassess the classroom’s understanding of the problem.  I am confident that by the second day, students will have a much better understanding of the mathematical concept presented to them.

This data collection process will be completed by:

November 23

I will initially analyze my data by doing the following:

At the end of lesson I will be able to gauge my students’ understanding of the mathematical problem presented to them either through a formal quiz format or through my general understanding of my students’ aptitude.

I will begin to write up my preliminary findings by:

November 25

Bibliography:

1.    Mathematics Reform Curricula and Special Education: Identifying Intersections and Implications for Practice Kristin L. Sayeski Department of Special Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

2. Wallace, F. (2008). Reading Mathematics in the Middle Grades. Library Media Connection, 27(1), 26-8. Retrieved from Education Full Text database

3. Sean Cavanagh.  (2008, April). Catching Up On Algebra: More schools are using unconventional textbooks and other curriculum materials to help make struggling middle schoolers ‘algebra-ready’. Education Week, 27(34), 25-28.

4. Hohensee, D. Student performance as aligned to teacher perception: A study of high school geometry performance in a large public school district and the impact of No Child Left Behind. Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Nebraska – Lincoln, United States — Nebraska. Retrieved October 29, 2010, from Dissertations & Theses: A&I.(Publication No. AAT 3326864).

5.Clarke, David; Breed, Margarita; Fraser, Sherry (2004). The Consequences of a Problem-Based Mathematics Curriculum, Mathematics Educator; v14 n2 p7-16 2004.

6. White-Fredette, Kimberly (2009). Why Not Philosophy? Problematizing the Philosophy of Mathematics in a Time of Curriculum Reform Mathematics Educator; v19 n2 p21-31 2009-2010.

7. Polly, D., & Johnson, D. (2010). How long can you stand? Teaching Children Mathematics, 17(1), 8.

8.Marylou T Clarke.  (1997). Real-Life Math Problem Solving. Teaching Children Mathematics, 3(9), 503.

Some Questions which needs to be addressed:

There are indeed some mathematical concepts that are very theoretical in nature and cannot be presented in a practical/everyday format.  Some concepts, while they may be able to be related to everyday life, might be difficult for the students to understand. So how do I try and relate every topic of math to its application in everyday life. For example in grade 12, I am teaching the topic of Binomial expansion, and I think, to relate it to everyday life or to find an application and do it in a class as numerical is farfetched.

Screencasting is an indispensable tool for any online teacher.  You can send personal “check-ins” (like we do with the video voicemails), create tutorials, give feedback on project based lessons – the possibilities are almost endless. Many of you have already dabbled in the realm of screencasting.

I made this screen cast so that my professor at Michigan State University  can get an idea how I am developing my online course. I used to get feedbacks via screencasts.

Wow ! It was an amazing experience to learn to develop  my very own online course . You can teach anything to anyone , anywhere  once you have created your own online course. It’s easy, watch this video to get an idea about it. Get liberated go Global go Online .

Click on the image below  a new window will open then click  on the image in the new window to watch my video.

Great Math performance  with 2 A*  and 2 A and one of my students Wei Ling  Chiu getting 100 in 4 out 6 modules and 97 in the other two it seems that it could to be an Edexcel Math record.

Being the class teacher of  grade 12 at Dubai Scholars; it was a very fulfilling  experience to teach and also learn from my students.  Teaching is always two way process rightly  said by Mahatma Gandhi. I truly believe I learn a lot from my students in the process of teaching them. Every class is different as the dynamics of the class  always keeps on changing .It is a new topic every day and the level of energy of my students  is different in every class  so it is always a new teaching experience.

Total number of  A* overall are 5 and  cumulative As per module is 19 . Will always remember this A levels  batch at Dubai scholars class of 2010. Best of Luck to them!!!!