Play Tech 4 - More Creativity Tools

Math Creativity Tools - Evaluation

There are several tools or manipulatives that I discovered this week.   They are virtual in nature which requires a computer, but the benefits are worth the effort.

How High (Link)

This tool allows students to predict how the contents in one size container would fill up the other container.   I like this tool because it really drives home the concept of the 3rd dimension which eludes so many middle school'ers.  Everyone that looks at the challenge can form an opinion and test if their choice was correct.  This can be done without the use of water and various sized containers.  It also has different sized bases.    

The students will have to do the math to have more accurate predictions and they'll also benefit from recognizing how "eyeballing" a solution is not as accurate as they think.  (more on eyeballing later)

What I dislike about the tool is that it does not allow for user input for different problems.   They are canned problems.  While I didnt see a patter or loop in the problems, this might indicate that there are enough problems programmed that the kids will not exhaust it's usefulness.  

Eyeballing (Link)

I enjoy this tool because it drives home the value in accurate measurement and calculation.  The student tries to place the spot, or square in the location to complete the type of shape depicted and described in the title.  It records their guess accuracy and the time it took to finish each shape.  It also shows a scale of other guesses.  

What I like is that it presents an appealing challenge to the student.  The task is easy to recognize and the statistics indicate to the student how well they did among other guessers which can lead to conversations of statistics.

What I dislike about the program is that it's too simple.  It's about a 10 minute exercise and wrap up and it's not something we can program with custom challenges. 

Probability, Statistics, and Plots (Selected for further reflection) 

Another set of tools from the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives are Coin Toss, BoxPlot and ScatterPlot  While they all can stand on their own, they all possess some similar benefits so I'll combine them.

Coin Toss is often the first examples to explain probability.  This tool allows the action of flipping the coin to be generated by the computer.  What I like is that the tool simulates the process with the speed of the computer and the slowness of the human.  Whether you choose 100, 1000, or 9999 coin flips it processes the coin flips and charts the outcomes in about 10 seconds.   It uses the magic of the computer, but does not make it unbelievable that the coin is not being flipped in successive times. 

Scatter Plot is helpful because it allows you to enter data into the table and it maps the points and lines up the slope according to the points.   It provides an example of data that can be used to fill up the table and engages the students to collect the data.  The site asks for height and arm span which would be different for each student, but would also show a trend.  What I like is the ability to use our own data and it engages the students.   What I dislike about the tool is that it automatically plots the line which gives away a major concept of scatter plots.   While it could be useful, it should be an option and not a default.

Box Plot is another tool that students have to conceptualize rather than discover practically   It's a lot of work to create data sets and to plot them.  Often they get caught up in the process and miss the beauty of the "forest". What I like is that it comes with 3 data sets programmed and it allows the user to enter their own data.  It performs the calculations automatically which can be a down side, but it serves the benefit of seeing the data in a graphical format quickly. 

What I like about the 3 tools is that it provides great examples and explanation with a icon labeled Parent/Teacher at the top of each page.  It also has a link to the standards for the grade level for easy reference.  It also has instructions to help if it's needed.

These three objects fit within the TPACK model because it addresses the 3 areas of Content, Pedagogy and Technology.  Regarding content, it provides the framework and information regarding Data Analysis and Probability.  Pedagogy is addressed because the students interact with the manipulative and the provided question prompts to guide their learning. Technology is not a mere substitute because of the dynamic nature of the data table and automatic graphing.  The tool doesn't stand in the way of learning as paper and pencil might.

Will the students learn the standards using these tools?

Absolutely!  Below are the standards for grades 6-8:

• formulate questions, design studies, and collect data about a characteristic shared by two populations or different characteristics within one population;
• select, create, and use appropriate graphical representations of data, including histograms, box plots, and scatterplots.

While each tool has questions and even extension questions to guide their learning, I would also provide some additional scenarios and/or data sets that they would need to determine which graphs or visual representations to use with the data.

What are some other ways the students might use the tools?

Perhaps they might use the tool to display a data set they develop and take a screen capture for a blog posting to illustrate how a prediction was proven.  

Play Tech 3 - Creativity Tools

Tools of creativity is what I explored this week. The three tools were glogster, scribble map and voicethread.

Glogster - online poster maker.

When you think of Glogster, think of a graphic blog.  This tool allows users to put various objects on a "poster" to give a message, or tell a story.   It's not just plain text with a occasional graphic sprinkled in.
The nice thing about this is that it has pre-made shapes and objects, such as pictures and it also allows the user to import their own created objects to place on the poster.  Video or audio can be incorporated.   It seems to have a lot of traffic and usage as there were many glogs to search through and discover. 

Likes: creative, has many shapes, images, can import various types of content.  It's certainly a mash able type of page.
Dislikes: external glogs can be quite crude.  It has the appearance of myspace which pages are often hard to read visually and with content.

Scribble Map - google map editor

Scribble Map allows the user to overlay text, shapes, images and pictures to existing google maps.  Maps can be used in a variety of subjects and this tool extends the maps usefulness in the learning environment.  It allows a hands on connection with the map in a way that wasn't afforded before.

Likes:  Uses legitimate map (google), overlays objects or tags to make the map/image your own.  facebook login for easy of use
Dislikes: I wish it had a way to export or view the scribble map in an iframe like google allows.  This would allow to add to other web pages without saving as an image.

Voicethread - a discussion board on steroids

A thread can be created and responses can be in the form of text, voice or video.  This enhancement to online interaction is a great way for the respondents to show their creativity or demonstrate knowledge in the discussion.

Likes: It accepts voice, graphics and text for input.  They can add items, pictures and video to share what they found or created and reflect.
Dislikes:  I couldnt tell if it prevents viewing the other respondents until they post something.  This would help keep them from slipping into group think.

I really enjoyed the Scribble Map tool the most.   I can easily see how this creativity tool can fit right in the center of the TCPK model.  From a content prospective, the students need to learn about scale factors and maps use this concept quite well.   They can measure the distance of points on a map and then translate that to a distance in real life using ratio calculations.  Regarding pedagogy, this activity can be very kinestetic which appeals to many of the students.  They are able to use a map that relates to their every day life and using a printed version of the map and some string, they can identify if their calculations are reasonable. The technology aspect of this is that the google maps, which is merely a substitute for a printed map can extend it's usefulness by zooming the scale factor and by the use of labels, and other shapes to indicate the path or connection between the two points.

Other ways that this tool could be used is to have the students drop some of the other shapes on the map to identify a radius from a single point.  They can calculate the area that their school or house might take up.  They can also identify which shapes are being used for 3 dimensional objects.  They can also be asked to find and and tag a list of shapes that might be used by famous landmarks.

New tools are constantly being developed on the internet.  With the dawning of HTML 5 and other web technology, user inter-activeness with a web page or tablet application can enhance the learning experience for the students.   While drill and practice tools have their place, they are further down the blooms taxonomy which do not encourage or drive the students outside of their comfort zone to analyze or evaluate what they have learned.  Tutorials and instructional games do not allow the student to interact and prove what they really know or how it might connect.  So they may know the facts, but not understand how to use the facts. A creative task and tool enables this assessment.

Play Tech 2 - ePortfolios

Finding a solution to build a ePortfolio is quite a challenge.  The many solutions available range from free to expensive and some that are discussed are even exclusive to districts and/or states.   I explored weebly, wiki pages and google sites.

Exploring
Google sites, a free solution, requires a firm knowledge of formatting and layout.  There are some templates that can be used to help with the look and feel of the site, but google seems to have a typical look and feel that says "I'm google".   I was hoping for something more suggestive for the types of artifacts so until I get a better handle on what I would normally post, I will look for dedicated eportfolio hosting services.

Wiki pages are very much in the same camp.  Once you learn the navigation tags it's easy for the user to move between the pages.  I am not a big fan of the wiki style and find it a bit cumbersome to add and edit items.

Affordances
I enjoyed weebly because it had components which allows the user to move types of artifacts into the page and it was easy to upload the information. The navigation was easy to set up and I could see how to extend or expand the site into sub categories.   I added a lesson plan I created for a class on variables and expressions.  http://mathiam.weebly.com  It did not take long and I saw where I could easily add text to explain/describe/reflect on each artifact.   I could easily see how to upload video which is a very popular and handy item to use since most phones have HD video on them.   Adding pictures, photo galleries will lend itself well to describing or connecting content to concepts or ideas that are shared.

It even has a mobile version of the site which makes it SUPER easy for smartphone browsing but it did not display my pdf file or the image for my Expressions and Equations tab.  I am not sure why that didnt come through; perhaps it's too soon for mobile?  I could switch to Web View on my phone and see most of it.

Since Weebly is designed for building portfolio's the user can spend less time on HTML coding or design and more time on collecting, selecting, reflecting and connecting.

What I didnt like about weebly is the cost to add pro items such as video.  Granted they need to be paid for their site and that is part of their model.


Student ePortfolios

If I were to have students create a ePortfolio, I would likely use something that was VERY structured.  Granted, I would want them to be creative, but I realize that creativity is pretty far up Blooms Taxonomy.  While I recognize that students can be quite creative and I wouldn't want to deter that in any way, it would be more important that they understand what they need to store, how they can store it.  Within the framework of a hosting site it should offer the flexibility so they can make it their own space.

One affordance that might make it difficult is the visibility to the world which might not be so inviting to parents.  I remember seeing one site that allowed teachers to make sub folios for their students which gave her the login and password for each student for distribution.  This would be a big plus for managing the process of setting them up and for accessing them.

A tough question to wrangle with is the intermingling of their school accounts/life and their personal or private accounts/life.    Colleges deal with this very issue by setting policies to not use personal accounts or emails to communicate via email.  I imagine this would be something to consider with younger students.

Play Tech 1 - Use of Blogs in Math

Having students write about math is something I've considered before.  In a book I recently read, "the fundamental 5" suggested that students who do not write or reflect on math struggle to rise upward on blooms taxonomy.  It suggested to have the students reflect on their learning in topics or courses beyond the language arts. 

Many times students are asked to think about experiences or seek out math related examples in real life and a blog posting can serve as a way to document and share their findings.   It also requires the students to describe what they found out in a way that others might understand.   This can be a challenge for most, particularly if they are a little weak on the content or procedure.  

One exercise in particular is for them to find right angles or triangles in various areas.   They might be charged with finding 3 or 4 different environments where a right angle is applied.  They could also identify how they would know that the angle is 90 degrees. Pictures could be taken and uploaded as proof and they would have to explain in a paragraph what is in the picture.

One of the challenges to having students use this method is to make sure they know what is required for posting.  A use of a rubric and some examples can help.  Another approach might be to ease them into answering questions or prompts and providing them constructive feedback so they can better understand what is expected of them.


I found a web site called kidblogs.org which makes hosting the blog site rather easy.  It doesn't require a gmail account for blogger.com and it's designed for the educator and student.  It even has a app for a smartphone to allow for easy review and assessment.  It might be possible that the school would include blogging as a "corporate tool" provided to education organizations as they do with gmail and google docs.  At which point, the login would come with their school account.


The blog can also be used to post summaries of content and provide links and extensions of lessons.   It would also be a way to communicate with parents so they can help engage their learning, or at least support it.

Some obstacles with the tool is access to a computer or internet.   Although this is becoming a lesser problem with the proliferation of smart phones and internet in the homes.  With some creativity this problem can be mitigated with time in the classroom or library.   There might also be a concern about students being "published" on the internet.   Posting by only using their first name or by hiding the link from search engines (if possible) can guard the privacy of the students.  I imagine full transparency of the project and documented actions that are taken to manage this concern should be used.