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DimDim example via Screencast

I was checking out some math, physics and standards based grading educational blogs when I came across a screencast of a teacher who used DimDim. Check out the screencast here and see how it went. More info from the lesson is found here. I found the DimDim to be a bit slow paced, but maybe that’s just the nature of the beast when trying to broadcast live video. Dan, the teacher, also lamented that he found formative assessment very difficult.

New Silos for Learning

As our education system moves towards an Education 3.0 paradigm, where student-generated content takes a large step forward, I see collective intelligence and current educational silo structures moving strongly in the direction of free access to subject content. To do this, political stake holders will have to give up their hold and control of exactly what it is that our children learn. From an educational design point of view, these changes have begun.

Where Do We Fail In Math Education?

The other day while looking at my MET course discussion forums I came across a post that made my blood boil. The topic being discussed was LOGO, and how Papert partially designed the language as a tool for constructivist learning of math for children. One of my classmates said they didn’t understand much about LOGO because she “wasn’t a math person.” My jaw dropped, blood ran to my head (or away from head?

Teacher Portfolios

Today, two references to Teacher Portfolios came to my attention. The first was a link to a post on EET that I got via physicstweet. The second was a link to a UBC Event on Teacher Portfolios. I’ll have to keep these links in mind as I build my own ePortfolio. Without giving it much thought, it seems that integrating a teacher portfolio into the ePortfolio would be a good idea.

Course Site

Building a Moodle course site was just the type of activity and motivation I’ve been looking for, for many different reasons. First of all, I’ve been interested in Moodle since around February of 2010. I went as far as installing a Moodle site on my hosted domain and tried playing with it. Other than creating a couple of course titles and inserting a forum activity, I did not get very far.

Flight Path

In the fall of 2008, after working as a mechanical engineer for 15 years, I decided to try out a new career in teaching. I put together my program applications and by spring of 2009 I was accepted into the PDP at Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Education. After a 12-month whirlwind program, I finally received my B.Ed in August of this year. In the spring of 2010 I anticipated that I would have temporary work in the coming winter.

LMS Proposal

As part of my development plan to engage and enhance student learning in the math and sciences, I would like to implement an online Learning Management System (LMS) to integrate with the subjects that I am teaching. The purpose of using an LMS is to achieve three primary goals. First, I would like to increase the frequency of on-topic course discussions, both student to student and student to teacher. Secondly, I plan on delivering lessons integrated with multimedia, and third, I will be incorporating some engaging Assessment for Learning techniques through the use of the LMS.

Polleverywhere

I think one of the best ways to incorporate mobile technology in the classroom right now is through Polleverywhere. This service offers online polling where the students can participate in several different ways, including: sms text messaging - via the web using their web widget mobile device by visiting poll4.com twitter a smartphone interface Polleverywhere is clearly growing, as the 3rd option that I mentioned above is a new development. I just tried it for the first time using an iPhone and it worked very well.

Theoretical Framework for Learning

Reading through the different frameworks we’ve looked at so far, I find that the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education speaks to me the strongest. There’s no doubt that the SECTIONS framework from Bates and Poole also resonates, but some of the elements are more focused on institutional and managerial aspects. These are exactly the kinds of issues I dealt with as a mechanical engineer and operations manager, and less so in my present circumstances as a secondary school classroom teacher.