Assimilating the tools and their importance - Part II

As mentioned before, this entry will be a summary and my thoughts on the various tools and techniques I researched over the past few weeks. I also had the last staff meeting for this semester with my tutors. We discussed some of the techniques which I was thinking about implementing as we move towards a new, improved Math Lab! More on the responses and suggestions a bit later.

• I talked about having a web repository of basic techniques to solve problem amongst other things. One must have tool in this repository should be the Web based math solver. This looks easy to implement (some simple coding techniques and a lot of help from tutors). This will help the students get help 24/7 with their basic problems. Since the tutors know which problems are most common and also what are the best steps to solve them, we can draft the whole site according to their feedback! Is it feasible? Yes, but we do need input from tutors and students alike. Is it worth the effort? Maybe - the only downfall I see to this is that the students regarding as another website with no active feedback. Can we improve on this? Yes - maybe we can make this into a wiki style tool where anyone can edit (UF students in the classes) but it will be monitored regularly. Unless we make this a more responsive system, I don't see us implementing this in the future. We can also think about creating a math Wiki for each of the classes we tutor - edited by the students, tutors and the teachers! There is already a Math Wiki which we can use as a starting point to build our wiki on.
  
• The previous point makes it seem like the more interactive the website is the more interested students will be in it. Then can we use Java applets to help the students? Sure we can! This can be a great addition to the web repository. Even teachers can assist in designing the applets. Is it worth the effort? Yes, there aren't too many Java applets targeted for specific classes. Each class can have its own set of applets which give basic problem solving help based upon the material covered. The only problem might be the actual coding of the applets since it does take some time to create problem solving applets. But the amount of technical know how on campus is tremendous and we can probably hire some students to work on it!
  
• Since we provide TV tutoring after the Math Lab closes, we need to think about how to improve it (especially after I analyzed it's effect taking into consideration the "Media Equation). We can probably can store them as webcasts and tag them so that students who miss a particular show can view it afterwards or just review it if they feel like it.
• The last post talked about the ActiveMath - a a stable, web-based, multi-lingual, user-adaptive learning system for mathematics. This seems like a perfect example of how we can improve our individual tutoring - we can schedule one student with one tutor for the whole semester. The tutor will guide the student via creating content for him/her using appropriate exercises. Is this feasible? Maybe - depends upon how much the tutor is willing to invest into. We can probably have full time tutors who can dedicate all their efforts to more than one student at different times of the day. Is this worth the effort? I think the amount of rich content and personal space the student will get should bring great results!

As I finish up this blog, I want to mention some of the feedback I actually received at the staff meeting I talked about yesterday. I mentioned to the tutors about using an IM client, a Math Wiki, few Java Applets, ActiveMath among others. The tutors seemed to like the concept of Math Wikis and applets a whole lot better than the rest. Their complaints about IM client was that unless we include in ActiveMath, it might end up being a waste of resources and time as it takes more time to type than to talk. Some suggested adding voice chat to IM clients, which seemed like a great idea. Some tutors liked the concept of ActiveMath but said that since they have regular classes and school commitment, it would be more appropriate if the Math department hired full time faculty or TAs to do it.
Overall, I think I have learned a great deal from the comments posted by my group members - Megan Di Giovanni, Vickie Durrance, Laurie Kitchie as also other students in the class and TA

Joseph Greaser. Their comments helped me get more understanding on the posts. Hopefully everyone enjoyed reading my posts (I know I enjoyed reading everyone's posts :) ) and found some useful tools which they can use in their teaching career or day to day life! Thank you everyone!

Assimilating the tools and their importance - Part I

Since we are coming to the end of the class, I thought it would be good to review the tools and techniques I have researched over the past few weeks. The whole purpose of the blog was to move the Math Lab I manage at UF towards a more online tutoring and web resource direction since the classes seem to be headed that way too. Web 2.0 tries to make the web a more like desktop environment - more responsive, easier feedback from apps, a more social environment! This led me to think about using the new Web 2.0 foundations to guide me through this process of moving in a new direction.

• The first thing that popped into my mind was how smooth will be this move? Will the school rules and red tape affect the process? After taking to my supervisor, I found out that the University is actually helping us change by increasing our budget! Since we are a free tutoring place, our main source of income is the grants from the University. It was refreshing to see that our efforts are appreciated by teachers, students and university officials! The students can now schedule individual appointments online with tutors as per their convenience using our software (TutorTrac)! The students can also rate their sessions with the tutors and leave comments for the tutors.

• In my previous blog entry I talked about using the concept of mutual learning; in this particular case using the concept of AnswerU to Math Lab. We can have tutors answer questions students might have after the Math Lab closes as suggested by Matt in one of the comments. The questions will be directed towards the tutors who are experts in that course and also other students in the course. This way if the tutor is not available, maybe other students can provide help! This leads to the following questions : Will this help? Sure it will! Is it feasible? Maybe - depends upon the availability of tutors. Is it worth the effort and money? Yes, if it is implemented right!
  
• I also talked about using IMs and "Electronic Ink". This looks like the best option right now since almost everyone on campus uses an IM client these days! The same questions as the previous ones appear again : Will this help? Sure it will! Is it feasible? The initial financial burden would be minimal since our lab has most of the PCs we will need. We also have tablets which the tutors can use. We can also set up webcams we own to give a more personal one on one tutoring! Is it worth the effort and money? Yes,since our initial investment will be minimal :)!
  
• Also setting up a resource rich, content manageable website will be great for the students. We can tie up with the Math Department to offer something on lines of an online web repository of information as described in this entry. But the main problem I see in this is making sure the content is updated regularly - who will do it? The Math Department will probably have its hands full since the courses are already online. Will we be able to maintain this? I think we should be! We already have a webmaster who can update the changes which the teachers or tutors or even the students suggest!
• While implementing these new techniques, I do believe that we must look into the aspect of accessible delivery of content to every student. UF does have a nice resource about accessibility which we can base our decision to implement some techniques on.

In my next blog entry I hope to summarize the rest of my thoughts on the various techniques and tools I looked at. I have my end of semester staff meeting with my tutors today in which I will be bringing up issues regarding this new look of Math Lab! I will be sure to post the reactions and suggestions, so stay tuned as we wind down to a bittersweet end of the semester!

ActiveMath - A step towards complete web delivery of Math

I was reading a paper about MathML by O. Caprotti and D. Carlisle when I came across ActiveMath mentioned as an implementation of MathML. I wondered to the website and found it to be an excellent resource for all levels of Math instruction - from basic to college level calculus and other advanced Math.
"ActiveMath is a stable, web-based, multi-lingual, user-adaptive learning system for mathematics." The system keeps track of the user actions and assesses his performance. The user can be a teacher who can create lesson plans and assemble content that will be delivered on a regular basis to the students. The content can include tutorials, actual pages from the textbook and also interactive exercises! The student also has access to useful tools like online graphing calculator, CAS (Computer Algebra System) amongst many other things! There is also an option called "Tutor Dialogue System" which lets the student create solve his difficulties by solving them step by step. The student is guided as he would be by a tutor - getting hints, evaluating the answers and giving feedback. I found this tool to be really interesting. Try it out : Login using the second option here. Click tools on the top right and then Tutor Dialogue System. Run through an example on the pop up, you will be amazed!
I feel this can be used very aptly in online tutoring. Since we have one on one tutoring for students who are below the threshold GPA and are having difficulties in the classes, we can schedule one student with one tutor for the whole semester. The tutor will guide the student via creating content for him/her using appropriate exercises. Maybe we can add a chat application to aid with the website where the tutor will login twice a week along with the tutee and evaluate the performance for the week. The options are endless!

Media Equation and the Math Lab

Everyone knows that media isn’t real; it is a useful tool to be utilized. That’s what I naturally think of when I explain how I would view interactions with media. It’s only on deeper introspection that I may decide my perceptions are not what I think they are; that is, I ‘know’ the reality of my computer being a piece of nifty wires and plastics, but I don’t realize that I treat it with the same patterns of social behavior that I do with anything else I consider intelligent (usually other people, but my cats count sometimes) and appearing to be capable of interactions.
I am in charge of the Math Lab, and I am used to watching interactions between my tutors and students every day. I don’t often consider if these students act differently when they are confronted with our ‘tv tutors’ until I reviewed the media equation. It doesn’t come to mind intuitively that these students should treat their ‘tv tutor’ differently than a real tutor. However, “people respond socially and naturally to media even though they believe it is not reasonable to do so, and even though they don’t think these responses characterize themselves” (Reeves et. al, 1996, p10-11). I have noticed that my tutors treat their ‘tv tutors’ in the same way they would react to someone in the same room. They make faces at it when they don’t understand something, or pay more attention and watch the actions and movements the figure on the screen makes as though they could see their audience. They get mad or frustrated or bored at the television even though there is no one or nothing in the room that would respond back to them in the same way (unlike a real person would).
This is only one example in my Math Lab, but there are too many examples to count (especially on a college campus, where quotes of “my computer is being stupid” are in abundance) of this media equation in action.
So how could I use this knowledge to my advantage in the Math Lab? There are a lot of different ways media design can be improved over the lengthy and sometimes dense instructions and rule-learning associated with understanding applications right now. If I made my video instructions or added new computer tutoring media that was consistent with social and physical rules (whether by personality in a program and realistic responses to more interactive video displays), the easier the technology would be to use since “people have a strong positive bias towards social relationships and predictable environments” (Reeves et. al, 1996, p10-11). The media equation is useful to keep in mind, especially in a work environment like mine where even in real life, students may need more stimulation to aid in learning and understanding.

Reference:
Reeves, Byron, and Clifford Nass. 1996. "Ch 1, The Media Equation," pp. 3-18 in The Media Equation. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved on April 15, 2007 from

MathWorld - A Math Wiki!

I recently saw this Math Wiki posted in one of the comments section of Digg (which itself is a Web 2.0 website where people share news stories and comment on the stories with an innovative ratings section). I have referred to some articles in this site before in some of my classes but never bothered to check the actual website (thanks to Google cache - never have to actually go to the website!). The website is a wiki dedicated to only Math! There are all kinds of entries from basic math to topology and advanced calculus! I find this breadth of knowledge really intriguing! I have been reading a lot about wikis through my group members' excellent posts and seeing an actual math wiki in place (not the math entires in wikipedia, but an actual math wiki) has been a real eye opener! One might comment that Wikipedia has all the similar entries but I would like to stress the importance of having a Math Wiki managed by the people who made Mathematica. This wiki is well indexed and has animated gifs as well as applets to help in learning (maybe they can collaborate with the people who created the applets I talked about in the last blog entry!)
I see this as a great resource when people come into the Math Lab to get tutored. Since the Calculus textbook at UF costs around $120 or so, it is hard for us to keep more than 2 books on reserve so students/tutors sometimes do not have textbooks to refer to. Now we do have internet access and quite a few laptops to check out to students or tutors. Students can then refer to MathWorld while they work on their homeworks if the tutors are busy helping out other students. Tutors themselves can refer to MathWorld to give examples and show animated gifs or applets to help students understand the material better!

Java Applets for Math

I was searching for some information on Java applets for my class project when I came across this website which has Java applets for Math! The use of applets helps create more lively and entertaining presentations. Students tend to stay more interested with hands on math than stuff taught directly out of the book. Students can go home and learn or revise their fundamentals before they dive into their homework. Even though the site does not offer too many applets, the quality of the applets make me believe that this will be a great tool for all kinds and levels of math ed. I liked the "Pattern Blocks : Learning fractions with shapes" applet. And above all, the best part of applets is that they can be run on any platform which has Java Virtual Machine installed! I think our Math Lab can create similar applets especially with Calculus I topics like Integration and Limits since there is a lot of visualization to be done for these topics. This might even be a great tool for Calculus 3 where they use lots of MatLab/Maple visualizations!

Elgg Presentations - An ePortfolio tool

So as promised, this entry will give some insight into Elgg Presentations. For starters, watch the Google Video posted below about Elgg Presentations (originally in the Elgg blog entry from one of the developers). It gives a short description on how to use Elgg Presentations. To say that I was impressed with the ease of use and the power of the tool would be an understatement. As you can see from the video, the whole process of creating an ePortfolio is intuitive and interesting.
Since Elgg packs all the necessary Web 2.0 tools like blogging and secure file repository, it is really easy to set up links to blog entries and files in the ePortfolio - all your information is in one place!! Plus the ability to import your information from anywhere on the web is a big plus for people who dont want to start a new blog or re-create the whole information again on the Elgg platform. Protecting personal information and identity on the web is of foremost concern to teachers and students. The ability to restrict access to content in Elgg Presentations is another aspect of well thought out design. The ability for others to add comments to each entry makes a great way to get feedback. Going back to the uses of this tool in the Math Lab, I think we can even keep a tab on the whole process of our shift to online tutoring in addition to the uses mentioned in the previous blog entry. We can keep a track of any meetings, any blogs we decide to make or links we want to share.
This Elgg Presentation stands as a great example on the various possibilities for this tool

EPortfolio tools

After the tremendous response I got for the last blog entry from the creators of Elgg and an information professional from an university where Elgg was implemented (see the comments for the previous blog entry), I decided to look more into the features of Elgg. One of the creators of Elgg pointed my attention to their new ePortfolio tool - Elgg Presentations.
I was quite interested in knowing what ePortfolio was, so I found some information about it on Wikipedia (see how all the Web 2.0 tools are becoming a common part of our lives? Pretty neat!). According to the Wikipedia entry

"An electronic portfolio, also known as an e-portfolio, or digital portfolio, is a collection of electronic evidence (artifacts, including inputted text, electronic files such as Word and PDF files, images, multimedia, blog entries and Web links etc.) assembled and managed by a user, usually online."

Students can use ePortfolios to publish their accomplishments, teachers can use ePortfolios to evaluate the students in their class as well as provide inputs and feedback. ePortfolios allow students to plan, document, assess, and improve upon their learning by significantly changing the manner in which their education is understood and managed.
I believe we can use this even in the Math Lab. We can have tutors assigned to specific student throughout the whole semester. The student will keep a track of his/her progress by updating their ePortfolio. The tutor can then provide inputs to the student, change the learning style to help the student achieve their desired goals. The students can also share their study sheets amongst others and also plan meetings and study groups with tutors via the tool.
Since I didn't talk too much about the Elgg Presentation tools in this entry, my next entry will include more information about Elgg Presentations. So stay tuned!

Elgg - social networking and more!

I came across this article describing a social networking website for education! "Described by its founders as a 'learning landscape', Elgg provides each user with their own weblog, file repository (with podcasting capabilities), an online profile and an RSS reader." It lets the users choose what tools they want to use and what content they want to share and with whom. It has all the necessary Web 2.0 tools all within - Blogging, file repository, podcast support, social networking just to name a few. It's a great source for a shared learning experience which can be restricted within a university. I found this quite interesting. The example of University of Brighton using Elgg provided some insights on how I can use this for the Math Lab. We could have students sign up for accounts and share their problems regarding a subject. We can have tutors who can monitor the specific topics. Sometimes the best answers to questions might even come from the other students, which will help answer the questions quicker! The students can also share their study sheets or download tutor prepared study sheets and reviews from the file repository. Supplemental Instructors can maintain blogs which give more information about what is being taught in class.
Link to Elgg : Elgg

Web based Math problem solver

I bet everyone here has at some point or the other referred to the web to get more information on some kind of homework or project - from getting more references, to getting tips on solving problems. I was looking at web delivery of math since that has been the focus of my blog entries this week (except the podcasting one :-P). I came across this website which has abundant types of math problems and their solutions. The best part about the site was that it wont solve complex calculus problems but sometimes when a student is stuck on basics, this site will be a blessing in disguise. Once you select the kind of problem you want more information about (I chose integration calculus) and input some sample data, it gives you detailed step by step solution while explaining even the simplest steps - it's like having an online tutor!
I thought that having a similar site with some sample problems which relate to the math subjects taught at UF will be a good solid step in progressing towards online tutoring. This will help the students get help 24/7 with their basic problems. Since the tutors know which problems are most common and also what are the best steps to solve them, we can draft the whole site according to their feedback!