"The
principal goal of education is to create men who are capable
of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other
generations have done-men who are creative, inventive
and discoverers. The second goal of education is to form
minds that can be critical, can verify, and not accept
everything they are offered; we need pupils who are active,
who learn early to find out by themselves, partly by their
own spontaneous activity and partly through materials
we set up for them; we learn early to tell what is verifiable
and what is simply the first idea to come to them".
Jean Piaget
" I think you should learn, of course, and some
days you must learn a great deal. But you should also
have days when you allow what is already in you to swell
up inside of you until it touches everything. If you never
take time for that to happen, then you just accumulate
facts, and they begin to rattle around inside you. You
can make noise with them, but never really feel anything
with them. It's hollow."
From "The
Mixed-up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L
Konigsburg |
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The math classes from my
learning past had a definite cookie cutter appearance - row of desks,
small lined scribblers, pencils, textbooks, the teacher at the front
- all of this housed within the most predictable of all - a quiet classroom.
Math instruction seems to be a subject that is well suited to a traditional
teaching format. Due to the logical and sequential nature of this topic,
math often attracts teachers whose own thinking and learning style matches
the subject. So at a time when other teaching disciplines are branching
out to encompass a constructivist style of instruction, full of collaboration
and technology integration, many middle and high school math teachers
continue to teach their subject using a more teacher-centered approach,
much the same way they have for decades.
As a math teacher myself,
I believe there’s change on the horizon. After watching my Language
Arts and Social Studies colleagues embrace the power of the Web to push
their students’ creative and critical thinking skills, I am noticing
many math teachers looking for ways to enhance their curriculum using
digital media. Realizing that digital media has the potential to facilitate
critical thinking and higher order learning, many of us are looking
for math-related online projects and resources that will help our students
express what and how they know it and will challenge their thinking
skills.
Telecollaborative
Projects
"Statistics:
A Curiosity Factor" was my first attempt at integrating telecollaborative
project work into math class. In the past I had developed a number of
Language Arts/Social Studies based telecollaborative projects with the
goal of connecting learners in other countries. No one was more convinced
than me that shared learning projects could challenge students’
critical thinking skills, engage their interest, and expand their global
perspective, while covering curriculum requirements. The question was
how could I use this style of instruction in math class? Using the unit
on Collecting and Analyzing Data as a jumping off point, I started looking
for Internet resources that would add pizzazz to a unit that had, in
my class, been traditionally textbook driven. Here I uncovered an abundance
of exciting statistics resources that I knew would grab student interest:
-
Articles that shed light
on how numbers can inform or misinform readers.
- Online surveys that explored
hot topics such as Spam and property rights in Cyberspace.
- The Gallup
Polls’ web page containing information on how the Gallup
Organization uses polls to predict trends and inform the public. This
site was loaded with videos examining everything from cloning to those
sticky ethical questions that students love to debate.
- An online
site that turned student data into a variety of colorful graphs-
all by just a click of the mouse.
- An array of sites that
provided up to date information on topics that interest all kinds
of learners.
Using these resources, students
developed a deeper understanding concerning how numbers can lead or
mislead, the usefulness of unbiased data, the art of creating a good
survey question and how to analyze data and present the results effectively.
For examples of this, see the Student Work section of the Statistics:
A Curiosity Factor. Without a question, using technology engaged
them in a way that textbook graphs and data charts never did. Knowing
that their learning would be online for everyone to see encouraged the
students to put more effort into their work and to increase their global
perspective as schools from Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas and Canada
joined in to share their survey results with each other.
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