Teaching Math With Advanced Learning Blocks TIME2010, Malaga, July 10 th, 2010

TEACHING MATH WITH ADVANCED LEARNING BLOCKS Matija Lokar, with Primož LUKŠIČ and Boris HORVAT TIME2010 2

TIME

Individualization We live in a society, where everything is individualized and personalized and : computers built to our exact specifications You choose the color of your car Ford, model T – any color as long as it is black one] we personalize our cell phones with ringtones, wallpapers, and skins … 4 TIME2010

Individualization Video: The public education system nowadays continues to insist that a one-size-fits-all, full time classroom-based model can and will effectively serve all students Education needs customization as well Just part of this: customization of the resources 5 TIME2010

Main challenges Appropriate usage of technology Personalitization and customization Different role of teachers 6 TIME2010

The 21 st century teacher Change in a teacher's functions We are not “walking encyclopedias” or “talking textbooks” anymore 7 TIME2010

Teacher of the 21 st century Instead, teachers are: Planners, strategists, researchers, pedagogical diagnosticians, work organizers, counselors, tutors … Task: Guiding a learner through pieces of information (teaching resources) towards knowledge With the requirement to Concretize educational content and adapt it to the interests and abilities of a particular learner 8 TIME2010

Organizing and using teaching resources One of the fundamental steps in the learning process In this step we take into the account the class we are teaching, the day, the pedagogical situation … So we Choose a certain textbox and stick with it from the first page to the very last one Of course not (or very rarely at special circumstances) Making a selection of different materials Choosing workbooks, choosing tasks, choosing pages on the Internet, choosing... Thus: TIME2010

Path through resources "Pile" of resources Necessary to provide the learner with a path through resources Prescriptions are given: Let's start with page 15 in textbook Y Follow the explanation and then turn to page 21 for exercises To see how this knowledge can be used in "real life" see handouts you were given Then continue with page 12 in textbook X … Or else technology is used: TIME

Prevailing technology … Source: Source: simplepress.wordpress.com Source: TIME2010

WHY AN IDEAL RESOURCE FOR ALL OCASIONS DOES NOT EXIST Is making combinations of resources really necessary TIME

Reasons Authors of resources consider a hypothetical pedagogical situation with hypothetical students The actual teaching process is always at least slightly different And never the same A good teacher Uses resources in the most appropriate way So s/he is “forced” to adapt the resources TIME2010

What about “modern” e-materials Could teachers … use … them more effectively? Unfortunately not! (most of the time) Lots of teaching e-materials are prepared in technically "closed form" Hard to change Complete portals, web pages with embedded flash animations, usage of frames, applets without the source … combine TIME2010

Teacher is the one who must adapt the resource to concrete teaching situation and to a particular student So the teacher takes from the various resources and reorganizes and adapts author's ideas and models in his/her own way Various studies on teachers attitude towards teaching resource Among the first three ones – always possibility to change the resource Even though the majority never changes the resource TIME

THE TEACHER “COMES FIRST” s/he should have control over the content s/he uses to teach the student TIME

A WHY NOT THE LEARNER? Teacher is the one "responsible" for learner's educational outcome. We are talking about resource to be used! TIME

Put teachers “back into the game” E-resources should be flexible Allow the teacher to adapt them, combine in his/her own way... Resource authors should prepare: Basic “building blocks” Pre-constructed models Instructions / tools for making new combinations Source: TIME2010

More than Lego Basic blocks should be adaptable, too Thus the teacher should be able to reword a question, change the explanation slightly, add a link to another material on the topic in the feedback … Change the order of questions Make a Jack in the story into Mike Instead of cars we could count baloons... TIME2010

More than Lego II The teacher should be able to use a particular building block in different shapes. For example: to use an exercise (a question) as a text (e.g. as part of a test written with the help of a word processor), a question in a Moodle virtual classroom, in the shape of Java assisted interactive question on a web page … So the teacher would be able to use the technical form that is best suited to the given moment PDF Format suitable for Interactive whiteboard iPad... TIME2010

Re-using resources Author creates the resources for an ideal situation, teacher teaches in “real world” Teacher should gain control over the resource Author should merely be an initiator of the resource in various forms Teacher is the one who upgrades the idea, adapts it to a certain pedagogical situation, his/her beliefs, … TIME2010

And technology nowadays … allows this! Using standards Small, flexible units covering small pieces of subject taught Available in different formats Additional advantage Ready for the future New devices, new technology … Content is mostly still appropriate, there are merely changes in (re)presentation TIME2010

The NAUK research group NAUK (advice / study) NApredne Učne Kocke – NAUK Advanced Learning Blocks TIME2010

NAUK projects Aim: to create a computer-powered system for managing and serving e-learning content that will be extremely suitable for teachers. Instead of the author-learner relation, we want to introduce the three-way author- teacher-learner relation. TIME

Everything starts with an idea The teacher should be able to take teaching materials from different online sources, and change and combine them to make a lesson that suits his or her style of teaching and the current situation in the classroom. Using the resulting content in different situations. Different ways of export, that conform to the most important up-to-date standards. TIME

TIME

E-LEARNING CONTENT SHOULD BE EASILY ADAPTABLE BY THE TEACHERS 27 TIME2010

Contacts Gracias por su atención! TIME