Gesture Friendly Interfaces for Classroom Teaching with Thinking Tools Stephen Chen, George Frempong, and William Chris Cudmore York University

August 24, 2006IFIP WCC 2006 Educational Technology Support in-class teaching and/or independent learning Large amount of research and development has focused on independent learning Learning Objects

August 24, 2006IFIP WCC 2006 Learning Objects Learning Objects are on-line resources dedicated to a single topic Learning Objects often include thinking tools that can engage users into pursuing deeper explorations

August 24, 2006IFIP WCC 2006 Thinking Tools Thinking Tools are interactive visual components that help users visualize and think about the topic Features include Visual animations Interactive feedback Dynamic linking

August 24, 2006IFIP WCC 2006 The Role of Face-to-Face Teaching Why are we here today? Teaching and learning benefits from the visual performance and dynamic interactivity of a classroom lecture Many concepts can be taught more efficiently and effectively in the classroom

August 24, 2006IFIP WCC 2006 The Role of Gesture Some mathematical concepts are physical – fictive motion (Núñez) Students learn better with gesture (Goldin-Meadow, Kim, and Singer) Teachers teach/communicate better with gesture (Kranstedt, Kühnlein, and Wachsmuth)

August 24, 2006IFIP WCC 2006 Current Learning Objects Data plotting carja.html carja.html Linear Functions mples/chap7/7.5/index.htm mples/chap7/7.5/index.htm

August 24, 2006IFIP WCC 2006 Learning Objects with GFIs Choosing a Cell Phone plan – plotting the data Choosing a Cell Phone plan – lines and intersections earch/math/relationships_final.html earch/math/relationships_final.html

August 24, 2006IFIP WCC 2006 Summary The design of learning objects and thinking tools should include the teacher’s perspective Gesture Friendly Interfaces help teachers more easily and effectively use these tools in the classroom