Jun 10 2009

Amesa 2009

Published by maggiev under Mathematical Literacy, Workshops, mathematics

The AMESA 2009 congress is upon us once again! It is happening from the 29th June to the 3rd July and the theme is: Mathematical knowledge for teaching. It will be held at  University of the Free State, Bloemfontein and you can find more information at the AMESA webpage (http://www.amesa.org.za/AMESA2009/) This year I will be doing a web 2.0 whirlwind workshop to entice mathematics teachers to use social media tools in their classroom. Here is my workshop abstract, I will load all my workshop links onto a list in Diigo which can be accesses from here: http://tr.im/o0j3

WEB 2.0 TOOLS IN THE CLASSROOM

This workshop will show teachers how to use “FREE and FRIENDLY web 2.0 tools” to engage a new generation of 21st century digital native learners in a more interactive and collaborative way. We will learn how social networking, bookmarking, RSS, podcasts, videos, wikis, blogs and twittering can be used in the classroom to create vibrant and exciting lessons and help us to stay up to date with learning practices and professional development for the 21st century. We will brainstorm some ideas on how to use every tool practically in the classroom, share resources and have discussions on the fly!

MOTIVATION FOR RUNNING WORKSHOP

Our learners grow up in a digitally enabled environment and will be required to use computers and digital media responsibly when they leave our care. We therefore need to learn how to use these tools ourselves in order to support our classroom activities and engage our learners in interactive and meaningful ways. Social media tools encourage

  • Group-centred learning
  • Project-based learning
  • Problem solving
  • Inquiry learning
  • Collaborative learning
  • Experiential learning

These tools can also assist us to stay on top of our subject through learning networks and professional development. We can use it to teach smarter not harder!

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENT OF WORKSHOP:

During the workshop we will register for some of the tools and brainstorm ideas around how to use it practically in the classroom :

  • Discuss what web 2.0 tools are and why it is important for us to use it in our classrooms (Tool: Social network (www.mathsliteracy.co.za , www.youtube.com, www.voicethread.com, www.skype.com , www.slideshare.net ).
  • Register for a twitter account (Tool: www.twitter.com) and use it to give feedback and ask questions during the workshop. Follow fellow teachers!
  • Discuss a given maths/mathsliteracy topic by creating a blog post (Tool a blog: http://mathsliteracy.wordpress.com) and using it to comment and keep track of twitter questions.
  • Create a collaborative mindmap (Mindmapping tool: www.bubbl.us ) about a classroom topic and embed some of the mindmaps in the blog.
  • Demonstrate what a wiki and RSS are and how to use it. Teachers can then add and change pages. (Tools: www.wetpaint.com, Google reader: http://google.com/reader )
  • Subscribe to and use a social bookmarking system to track and store collaborative resources (Tool: www.diigo.com) (20 minutes)

The workshop presentation can be downloaded from here: http://www.box.net/shared/j4kmpdsgip

Comments on the Amesa conference can be found here:
http://mathsliteracy.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/amesa-2009/

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Apr 12 2009

School 2.0 Bookmarks (weekly)

Published by maggiev under Bookmarks, School 2.0

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Apr 05 2009

School 2.0 Bookmarks (weekly)

Published by maggiev under Bookmarks

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Feb 22 2009

School 2.0 Bookmarks (weekly)

Published by maggiev under Bookmarks

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Feb 08 2009

School 2.0 Bookmarks (weekly)

Published by maggiev under Bookmarks

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Jan 25 2009

School 2.0 Bookmarks (weekly)

Published by maggiev under Bookmarks

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Aug 24 2008

Dr Maths on Mxit

Published by maggiev under Virtual classrooms, m-learning, mathematics

The new thumbtribe generation has embraced an innovative way to slay their age old enemy- maths, using their cellphones and the much debated and severely fouled, Mxit!

Mxit has been getting a lot of bad press ever since it became the craze of the teen (and pre-teen) generation with parents and teachers alike, calling for Mxit to be regulated. In the midst of “slut-lists‘ and paedophile phobic verbal attacks on the popular cellular chat-client, Dr Maths is emerging as a ray of hope!

There is no doubt that Mxit is incredibly popular. This free service has grown by word of mouth to over 2000 learners country wide! So Laurie’s Butgereit of the Meraka Institute’s brainwave to use our learner’s favourite tool for teaching and learning, was indeed not only a stroke of genius, but an incredibly brave move in the face of adversity. I, for one, was initially sceptical about whether the learners will allow us to use their favourite tools for something like (…uhmmm) learning maths, but the popularity of this maths helpdesk speaks for itself.

To test the service and to catch up with the latest Mxit-maths “craze” I dialled in on this here lazy Sunday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to found the friendly maths tutors on hand, ever so professional, helpful and oh so knowledgeable. I have it on authority that they are well trained not to just provide answers, but to guide the learners through the meaning making process. The fact that there is also a delay between responses also makes it possible for learners to “give knowledge a try” and most of the time, they get to the answers themselves with just a little nudge from the tutors. The tutors can assist with maths and maths literacy problems and even help out with a bit of science hassles along the way as well. Truely remarkable!

So how does it all work?

First off, you need to install Mxit on your cellphone and/or computer. For more instructions on how to do this….

  • Give your cellphone to a member of the thumbtribe (the closest teenager around you) and tell them to set you up (Quickest and easiest method)
  • Or you can follow the instructions from the Mxit website
  • Add Dr maths as one of your contacts 27799923960 thru 27799923969
  • When they come online, you will hear a little sound and there will be a green dot next to their name
  • Then go ahead and ask away!
  • The Dr Maths team is online after school hours i.e. Mondays to Thursdays 2pm-10pm and Sundays between 11am and 8pm. They are even considering extending the service to Saturdays as well. How amazing!

They also have introduced a maths game which can be played when the team is not online when there are no tutors on. The learners can then compete in different categories, like addition, subtraction, factorials and others, to see who can get then highest score. The champion and the previous champion are notified to defend their title. Positive peer pressure at work!

So bravo to Laurie and her Dr Maths on Mxit team! Let us learn from their enthusiasm for creating authentic learning environments using the oh so dreaded Mxit on cellphones!

A few more articles regarding DR Maths on Mxit:

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Jun 12 2008

Mathematics on the Internet

Published by maggiev under mathematics

Handy little resource for maths teachers…

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May 14 2008

Mathematical Literacy online meeting

Published by maggiev under Mathematical Literacy, Workshops

I have decided that it is time to take the maths lit teachers into the arena of having REALTIME online meetings. Of cause I went off on a tangent wanting to just throw them into the deep end with some high tech web 2 tools like WizIQ and was then horribly brought down to earth by my ever present friends….bandwidth and dialup.

When I tested my room with a dial-up….well lets say that I had to go back to the drawing board.So I have decided to KISS (keep it simple stupid) and then inserted a little  Cbox chat box into my ML NING network. It is very basic but works quite effectively. We will have to see tonight how effectively. The reason why I decided not to use SKYPE or any of the other Chat agents (IM, Google chat…) is that the last time I tried to have an online meeting, we ended up chatting across 3 different platforms with some of us being relay agents. Chaos. So at least nobody will have to install anything and can just jump in. I do think the teachers will probably be a bit confused with such a small chat window and a myriad of conversations that will probably take place. I expect that it will be a first for most of them.

In combination with the chat window, we will do the resources discussions in a forum next to the chat window (rather asynchronously) but it will be a little more organised and the teachers can then upload their resource for discussion as well. So hold thumbs for me! I will report back on how it went…..If you know any maths lit teachers in South Africa, please tell them about the meeting at:http://www.mathsliteracy.ning.com

Time: 19h00- 21h00 (or there about…..) Time goes past so fast if you talk about maths…

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