End-of-course summary

Task Discussion

• 
  SueSullivan   May 6, 2013, 2:13 p.m.

   

  QUESTION 1:

  Honestly, there were so many great things about this course that it's hard to just name a few!  To start, having to use free and open course materials was a real eye-opener for me - I had no idea that there is such a wealth of high-quality resources available to the public.  I found the variety of weekly discussion topics was well-rounded; various aspects of using tech were discussed, rather than just one type.  Having the freedom to choose our own topic of the week gave me much-needed practice in creating a lesson and facilitating discussion.  The weekly meetings allowed me to practice using conferencing technology (I was a newbie); it was also nice to interact with everyone in a way other than writing!

  QUESTION 2:

  I really don't feel there's any need to improve anything (I loved this course!) but agree that having to reply to others' posts would encourage even more discussion.  At the same time, I've taken online classes that had the same requirement, and sometimes there just isn't much to say (I don't mean that in a negative way).  Maybe a response requirement could be over a certain time period, such as 'make X amount of responses to others during the length of the course'?  I also agree that varying the chat times might allow more people to participate.

  In closing, I just want to thank everyone for sharing all of their wonderful ideas; I have learned SO much about so many different things - what a great experience!

  I just can't resist using Google Translate one last time (though this won't be in Finnish) to give Dr. Droujkova a big спасибо!

  Hope everyone has a safe and happy summer - take care!

• 
  MgnLeas   May 5, 2013, 10:23 p.m.

  Question 1:

  This class opened up a world of new teaching ideas. I have used smart boards and thought that was the way to incorporate technology. Now I see there are so many options beyond that! I actually looked into the certification in technology for masters of education students. I think it is amazing! I cannot wait to meet with my advisor and set it all up.

  One thing that I found most helpful was us creating our weeks. I liked this for two reasons. The first would be I got to explore an idea or concept more in depth that I was interested. But also I got ideas and research from everyone else on the same topic! Yeah it’s like a two for one deal but better.  The second reason would be I feel like it gave us a chance to run an online class. As the world become more “distance learners” this is something we may do in our careers.

  Another thing I liked was the weekly meetings. At first I was frustrated because of working the time to meet. This is one reason I choose online this semester, my schedule changes weekly and I have a toddler who is somewhat unpredictable sometimes. However, I found these meetings to help me get the interaction I was missing by not being on campus. SO thank you!

  Question 2:

  If I were to co-lead I would not change much. One thing I would ask is that people comment on others posts weekly. I do not think I would set a minimum like 3 per week because I feel people would do only the minimum. I feel like us as a group began to do this anyway this semester after our first “meeting” we had. I know after that point I felt like I had met everyone and wanting to comment on what they had posted. By having people post to others work, it make it more interactive. It also gives us ideas and insight from colleagues.

  I know Gina was unable to attend the morning meetings because she teaches full time. Perhaps, if I came across this issue I would set up two times to chat. I would give people the option to come to either or both. This would give everyone the opportunity to be involved. Also if something comes up and someone cannot make the set time they could come to the other time. This would be more work for me as the instructor, but I know the chats helped me so I would want to pass that on.

• 
  Katherine Hanisco   May 5, 2013, 9:33 p.m.

   

  I just wanted to say that I had such an amazing experience in this course. I really loved interacting with all of you and I feel like I have so many ideas and resources as I move forward. I’ve been at my teaching job for two weeks now, and it’s going to be a tremendous challenge to implement the technology we’ve discussed this semester because in my classroom I have a whiteboard, a marker, and that’s it. But I am determined to bring technology into my classroom somehow!

  Question 1

  I have to say that the meetings were probably the most helpful aspect of the course for me. I really felt like I learned so much from that interaction that I wouldn’t have been able to get if I’d just been working independently. We all brought different things to the table, and it really was wonderful to share those experiences and perspectives and learn from each other.

  I also enjoyed how the different tasks were open enough so that we could really incorporate our own interests. It made the work very meaningful to me because I felt like I could really make it my own. It was very interesting to see how each person put their own spin on the same task.

  The opportunity for each of us to design our own tech week was another one of my favorite aspects of the course. Not only did we each get the learning experience of designing assignments, but the fact that we were able to choose topics that interested us was another way to get something really meaningful out of the course. I loved how we all chose such different topics and I learned so much from each of them.

  Question 2

  As I did research for the various assignments for the course, I came across a lot of interesting sites for technology in math ed – blogs, games, virtual manipulatives, etc. I know that we all linked to sites for the different tasks, but sometimes there were sites I found that didn’t work into my response because it wasn’t quite right for the task. I think it might be helpful to create a free-for-all “resource center” post where we could all just post links along with a one sentence description. Then that post would just be one big list of pages that we could quickly scan if we were looking for a particular idea somewhere down the road.

  All in all, I feel like the course was extremely well-designed and one of the most useful and meaningful courses I've taken in my grad school career. 

• 
  MgnLeas   May 5, 2013, 10:24 p.m.
  In Reply To:   Katherine Hanisco   May 5, 2013, 9:33 p.m.

  I like the free for all idea! I found myself bookmarking sites, in hopes that they would work for the next task!

• 
  Lisa Ritt   May 5, 2013, 6:56 p.m.

   

  RE: Question 1

  What aspects of the course were most helpful for your growth of understanding about tech, math ed, or more global ideas about teaching and learning?

  My main growth through this class has been gaining confidence in utilizing many free online math tech tools to help my future students learn concepts in a unique and engaging way. I had such a fear of being behind the times with what's available and I now feel the opposite because of everyone's input. I found the ability to read everyone's comments and see other students work incredibly helpful. Most helpful, I found using Scratch and Geogebra are great tools and one's that I don't think I would have come across if it wasnt for the class. But, for sure, the sharing of information and getting everyone's perspective for me with all of you was the most helpful.

  Having an understanding of what other country's and other parts of the U.S. may be doing helps me feel like I really want to contribute to everything that's out there. The sharing of knowledge of what works and what doesnt and expressing our opinions can help other teachers as well as ourselves become better educators. 

   

  Question 2

  If you were to co-lead a class like this in the future, what would you modify, add, change? Share your ideas!

  -I think Katherine made a great suggestion regarding a requirement of replying to say at least one or two of other students' comments would work well. 

  -For when we have to create our own assignments, maybe having a TOP 10-15 of what you're finding are HOT topics globally in tech-driven math teaching could help students find a unique topic?

  -Finally, because I think the more time we spend in the classroom honing our skills, the better, I'd say perhaps a fieldwork element where you have to  to try to teach a live lesson (or maybe even 2 or 3) to a group of students involving a particular math tech at a school working it into their curriculum. 

  -Overall, once I got over my initial fear of what I considered "high-tech" stuff, I now love feeling armed with all these online free resources!

  Thank you so much Maria & everyone :) Have a great summer!

  -Lisa

   

• 
  Gina Mulranen   May 4, 2013, 10:43 p.m.

  Question 1

  I think the most helpful aspect of this course was all the resources that Dr. Droujkova and the other students provided that I could put into use in my on-site and virtual classroom. I have not had the chance to sit down and research all these different tools because I have been so wrapped up in my curriculum. This class was a wonderful opportunity for me to reevaluate some of the projects I assign and the lessons I teach and add in these new technology pieces. With all of the articles and videos we watched, I realized the importance of technology in mathematics education, especially if we are preparing our students for success in our society.

  Question 2

  I personally thought that this class was very well run. The live chat once a week gave us the chance to interact with each other like we would in a classroom and the online classroom with P2PU was a great opportunity to see each other’s responses to different topics and learn from each other. If I was leading an online class like this one, I think I would require that each student respond to at least two other student’s posts each week so the students are reading and interacting to each other’s thoughts and ideas. This would help increase the communication between all the members in the class, especially if they are not able to make the live chat.

  I think the different topics we explored in this class were great and I also really benefited from all the additional resources provided by all the members of the class. From the virtual graph paper to the resources to teach Scratch, I have learned SO many different ways to integrate technology into my classroom. The tech week was also a great way for students to choose a topic they are most interested in and learn from all the other student responses as well. I really enjoyed that! I think having each student lead their own live chat on their topic of choice is also a great way to provide cyber teaching experience. Thank you, Dr. Droujkova, for a great technology learning experience!