3am conference with my math super hero
November 6th, 2010 § 2 Comments
Despite the wake up time of 2:50am I thoroughly enjoyed the Classroom 2.0 LIVE show this morning featuring Dan Meyer. He was speaking about ways to develop problem solving skills with students and some of the technologies used to engage and inspire students. This session was held via Elluminate which is a fantastic web conference platform. From the screen shot you can see a chat window and the names of participants. Then the presenter has audio and slides to go.
Dan began by talking about how in the classroom Maths text books primarily focus on the solution of problems (usually by plugging numbers into a formula) where as in real life we need to spend a lot of effort actually formulating the problem. He suggested that pseudocontext for Maths does not help students because it does not engage the them. Pseudocontext is where either a boring or abstract idea is used to apply Maths and you can see loads of reconstructed examples here.
Next he went onto explain the types of technology that he uses to help engage learners. The technology he employs always aids the concept of,’Is this a perplexing question?’. 
There is a list of the links mentioned in his session.
This is the Elluminate version of the session.
I like the look of the HoverCam.
I’ll be working through loads of these ideas with my team and I know that as we learn there’ll be a great impact on student learning.
Mark, at my school, I refer to you as “The Aussie Dan Meyer”
I am not a Maths teacher and consider myself to be very “mathematically challenged”. However, I look at the work of educators like yourself and feel such admiration for you. I know that students are in great hands with teachers like you implementing and sharing such wonderful ideas.
Thank you.
Lucy
[...] was first introduced to the Hovercam during a web conference I attended last year with Dan Meyer. It’s a great tool for the learning environment [...]