One of the most effective teaching techniques, in my opinion, is the use of cross-curricular activities. In the past, I have had students collaborate on the building of a bridge with popsicle sticks - given an equation to rate it and so forth, that has students try to solve a problem together (which allows them to use Communication, Physics, Math, etc.). If students can "tie together" some aspect from my discipline, mathematics, with any other subject such as history or English, etc. it will help them to understand concepts more. We are currently in a communications explosion with no signs of a slow down. Using a "web cam" to link one of my math classes to another math class elsewhere in the country, (or world, time difference would pose a problem) would provide a lesson in more subjects than I can begin to list... Also an assignment given to my students such as "Given a certain topic (Pythagorean Theorem, The number, Pi, The number, e, etc.) collaborate on a paper with another student as to when the topic was it conceived or developed, who did the conception or developing, why did they do it, and what are its uses today" would cause them to think differently about the topic. It would cause them to look at the subject of mathematics in an entirely different way. It would also give them exposure to Google Docs and, perhaps, some online storage applications for pictures, diagrams, videos and so forth. Brainstorming is such an awesome thing at times!!!
I like your ideas of ways you might try to incorporate some of the applications into your lessons. So many times when I'm in a technology class I think the applications are really neat but have a difficult time trying to figure out how to use them in my classes. When I hear of how others are using them it gets the wheels turning & gives me inspiration of how I might use/apply the applications. You mentioned using a web cam to connect students across the USA/globe. I did just that on Monday; I had my entrepreneurship class talk to a young, successful entrepreneur in California & the students LOVED it!
ReplyDeleteI agree. I like to hear how others plan on using these technologies in the classroom. Bill, do you think you'll be able to use some of these things this year? If so, please let me (and the others) know what you did and how it went.
ReplyDeleteI have just made a second push to incorporate Google docs in my class. So far, it's going well. I asked my students if they preferred typing over hand writing,to which the overwhelming response was "yes!".