Technology + Education = Headache

Patience? That is what I am starting to have short of. Especially, on the eve of the release of Win7. Here is my issue.

As we all may compatibility issues in the coming months especially if you finally decide to finally upgrade from WinXP, Win2003, Win2000, Win98, WinME, WinNT, or even Win3.1. However, with the mission critical applications that I use in the classroom, I cannot afford compatibility issues.

Pressure needs to be placed on educational software developers to ensure the reliability of their products through OS upgrades by immediately producing software upgrades/patches without drama to help with the growing pains. What drama am I referring to? That will have to be in another blog post…

Math w/Sports Jerseys

If you get the opportunity, check out the latest issue of  the above ESPN Magazine (Jun 09). It has a great article that has the jersey numbers of great athletes of all sports in numerical order from 00 to 99. Great opportunity for math in action, and test some sports knowledge. I have contemplated in blowing up these two pages and add it to my classroom collage by using rastorbator!

Turning of the tassel

Yesterday (6/15)  I had the opportunity to attend the 2009 commencement of West Charlotte High School. This occasion was special to me because I had the opportunity to see a few of my 7th grade students from 2003 that actually crossed the stage. Unfortunately, I saw very few students that I knew.

I heard that there was actually over 300 seniors but only approximately 100 march?

Something is definitely wrong.

Maybe virtual high schools will make a difference. What do you think?

High-Stake Assessments + Brain-dumps

Disclaimer: What I share on this blog are my views and do not necessarily reflect the views of my school district.

Just a thought…

When I was once in the IT field, one was once stressed in passing tests such the series of MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), A+, and CSA (Certified Solaris Administrator) certifications. To these and other tests, there exsited a dark-side that people (usually desperate) tend to gravitate. What I am speaking of are braindumps. Please follow the link to Wikipedia where it gives a more definate explaination. There is a negative connotation to them because one is supposed to gain IT knowledge through classroom experience, however braindumps alleviate that need for official training. 

Knowing that this exists, I wonder if students or just students in jeopardy will become hip to the previously mentioned IT trend of retrieving large relevant chunks of information in preparation for these high-stake assessments. With the stress of passing the test, is this what high-stake assessment vendors push on teachers to push on students to make the grade?

Your thoughts please…

Book Spotlight: Sir Cumference & the First Round Table

In the spirit of high-stake testing…

Nowadays, it is recommended for math teachers to integrate reading into their discipline. Believe it or not, literacy skills are very important for student success involving word problems. So I’ve decided to spotlight some great math related books on my blog from time to time.

I wish to start off with sharing the first book of the of Sir Cumference series. The book Sir Cumference and the First Round Table by Cindy Neushwander is a great tale of how a medival dude solves a problem with King Arthur’s meeting table.

I’ve found this book great to introduce or have the discussions about the area of rectangles, the properties of circles, and some neat constructions. If you own an document camera, it would be a great idea to use it to blow up the awesome illustrations by Wayne Geehan. The book is a great read and I will share the others in the series later!

Generations & Technology

As I go along my way in this age of technology, I am still amazed in how little people know about the Internet and what it has to offer. For example, if you have not AT LEAST heard about MySpace, Facebook or Twitter by now, you must really have your head in the dirt.

I ran across some information from a past workshop that I attended long ago that discussed the generational differences.The generations were broken down as traditionalist, boomer, genX, and genY. It is very interesting to see the comparison between them especially when it comes to technology.

Traditionalist – Uncomfortable
Boomer – Unsure
Gen X – Unable to work without it
Gen Y – Unfathomable if not provided

It is also interesting to see people operating out of their expected technology window. For example, my grandmother that is 82 years old expressing great interest in learning how to send an email. No… not happening; Or a twenty-something year old asking for directions when they are available via GPS, or on cell phone.

After further thinking about this topic, it also dawned on me…what would be the ‘killer app‘ of each generation.

Traditionalist – Radio
Boomer – Television
Gen X - Between the Sony Walkman and the video game system
Gen Y - Cell phone

The above hints to further discussion… much later.

T.I.’s Hottness for 2009

If you thought that I was going to talk about Clifford Joseph Harris Jr., I apologize in misleading you.

However, I just briefly wish to share what I saw at the Texas Instruments booth during NCTM09. The photos below seemed to be all that really caught my attention.

On the left, I got my hands on the new TI-73. This model was designed for the middle school. The updated version of this calc has an increased space for memory to load more apps – where the previous version did not allow. Also, it is officially now sexy like the TI-84s.

To the right, you have the Navigator system designed towards the TI-Nspire. As you can see, the wireless hubs are actually attached to the back of the calcs instead of having the calc hooked up to the wireless hubs. That data cable is gone! Click on the image for additional information and to find out when this system will be released.

T.I.’s theme apparently was “Math Rocks!” I had the opportunity to take a picture beside an autographed guitar signed by the Jonas Brothers. Woo hoo!

The New & Improved TI-73

Wireless TI-Nspire Navigator

Strappin’ Down the Laptizzle

Me in '02 with 1st laptizzle (Yeah, I used to rock the locs...)

  

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 As we all know, the demand for laptops has increased. People are more mobile and sometimes get a little careless in their actions in public places with their valuable devices.

When I purchased my real (1st laptop was a joke) laptop in 2005 I don’t think that I ever let it out of my sight. I guess, stepping away from your laptop nowadays is kinda like leaving your car on when gasing up or running in the house for something you forgot. Brett Burney has a great blog post (back in 2005) that discusses the same topic and give additional tips.

I know for a fact that libraries make sure that if you’re leaving your belongings (including your laptop) unattended, you are at your own risk. If you do decide to seperate from your laptop for using the bathroom, telephone, or even take a quick smoke outside, I highly recommend all laptop users to invest in a cable lock to protect your investment in deterring theft. Better safe than sorry…

Senteo Madness

Due to the local & state budget crisis, there has been cutbacks on copier usage. Teachers have been running around looking for solutions to avoid making ditto sheets. The tech people at my school (me) are working on conecting our Dukane document cameras to integrate into SMARTNotebook.

Teachers are now diligently requesting to use the handheld interactive response systems from SMARTtechnologies called Senteo remotes. We have had these devices for months, however training was an issue. Teachers are eager to move forward to dare to learn how to use this technology on their own. However, due to the configuration of our school’s laptops, teachers cannot use the new Senteo Teacher software; however the Senteo Manager works like a charm.  This was the first roadblock discovered this past week.

I upgraded Senteo Manager to Teacher (version 2.0.97) on my personal laptizzle and have been creating assessments all week. Here are a few thoughts on the new software upgrade.

• There is a need to make Senteo more robust as a gradebook.  It would be a great feature to export class list (non-PDF file)  from Senteo Teacher. In other words, there is a need for the functionality to print class roster outside of the reporting feature - Creating PDF takes a very long time, well.. on my laptop anyway. 
• Import data from “on the fly” questioning into the gradebook is highly desired!
• Students need multiple representation of data. Cannot view data results as a circle graph – bar graph only.  
•  Privacy button was a great addition.

I will be going out of town this week to NCTM conference in DC. I will be looking for some great stuff to share…

 

 

IDK

In this day of the Information age, is it acceptable for students to use this or any text-speak language?

In Math… I have noticed the growing usage of IDK on student work. Sorry if I assumed that you know what IDK meant, but it stands for “I Don’t Know.” As teachers always reply, what is it that you do not understand?

Maybe when we think that we are getting ahead by being brief in communicating, we are really getting behind in how we clearly communicate. I am not bashing the Web 2.0 generation, but there is a proper time and place to keep it short. When it really matters, you need to be specific and to the point. I guess that’s the battle that English teachers deal with constantly – the students’ on-going text-speak usage when it is & not appropriate.

However, mathematicians or people that think logically may embrace the brevity of text-speak. SO LT ME END BY SYNG CHOOS YR WEAPN WSLY FR YR BTTL MY DPND ON HW CLEARLY U CMMNCT YR PLN OF ATTCK! THS WS TRNSLTD BY TH FLLWNG TXT-SPEEK TRNSLTR.