Tuesday, June 16, 2009
LectureTools is designed to provide a class experience by:Dimdim Free - Dimdim: Web conferencing that just works. I had used Zoho Meetings for this once before, but they now have limited you to just one other person in the meeting. Still useful for computer troubleshooting. This might be more usable for some training sessions for my department.
1. Enabling note-taking synchronized to lecture slides,
2. Providing opportunities to pose questions electronically during lecture,
3. Including a complete personal responder system to participate actively in class activities and
4. Tools for self-assessment of confidence of understanding
Dimdim Free. The world’s easiest web conference. With Dimdim Free, people and organizations around the world can now meet freely. And since everyone will spend less time traveling and more time collaborating, this free product can actually help you make money. Take that, economy! Now the world can meet freely with up to 20 people, absolutely free.OurStory.com - Capture your stories, save them permanently. Not really related to my classrooms (at least not right now), but something I might use for my own personal story. I had started a timeline of my life with another program, that has since disappeared from the net...maybe I'll get one done and archived here?
- Make your timeline about anything
- Collaborate with family and friends
- Share it with whomever you want
- Add your timeline to MySpace or your blog
Friday, June 12, 2009
This site will show you how to unleash the graphing capability of Excel to serve the needs of math students and math educators. . When accompanied by the templates for Algebra, Pre-Calculus, Finances, Calculus, Statistics and Probability, Number Theory and Linear Algebra, Excel is a powerful ally in the effort to teach and learn mathematics.Graphing Java Applets What a quick way to get nice graphs ready to be placed in a Word document! Seems very easy to use. Also could be good for students to use for projects, homework, asking questions in an online format.
My name is Ian Vogt and I wrote these elementary graphing programs, as Java applets, for my mathematics (MTH/208 and MTH/209) students at the University of Phoenix Online. You are welcome to give them a try and, if you like them, use them for your math assignments or any other non-commercial purposes.
There are three tools: a number line grapher, a grapher for linear equations and inequalities, and a tool for creating graphs of absolute value, quadratic (parabolas), and square root functions. Click here to see examples of the graphs you can create with each tool.
Do you know these Double-click Tricks in Excel? | Pointy Haired Dilbert: Charting & Excel Tips - Chandoo.org Wow! Cool tips that I just KNOW I will be using with my Excel gradebooks.
as part of this installment of spreadcheats we will learn 7 very cool and effective double click tricks in excel.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
- Seth Godin's Blog recently asked the question, "Why am I here?" It is targeted to people attending meetings and conferences, but could so easily apply to students. I love the end of his post:
If there isn't a good reason, go home. If there is, then do something. Loud, now and memorable. Productive too, please.
- "Microsoft SharedView is a fast, easy way to share documents and screen views with small groups of friends or coworkers; anytime, anywhere. Use SharedView to put your heads together and collaborate - create, convey, and communicate…across physical boundaries, through firewalls, and down to the smallest details."
Looks like you can share with up to 15 people. And it's free! - Kate at f(t) found a way to make students more likely to actually plot points before they graph a function. It relates to a urinal in the men's bathroom in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. There is a housefly painted on the porcelain, which improves aim and decreases the mess in the bathroom. How does this relate to graphing? Your aim is better if you have something to shoot for. So your graphs will look better if there are some points along the way acting as targets!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Walpha Wiki
This wiki will be tracking how Walpha might be used by students and as a tool in outside the classroom. As stated in the wiki:
A few of us interested in exploring the implications of Walpha on secondary and undergraduate mathematics education thought it might be useful to have a wiki where math educators could contribute documentation regarding Walpha's use in such teaching contexts. In particular, we're interested in documenting how Walpha can handle or help with handling common problems asked of students in these courses, as well as how Walpha might be used as an instructional tool when teaching students about related content.
It will be interesting to watch this wiki as it changes.
Labels: links, Wolfram|Alpha
Monday, May 25, 2009
Endless Scholar (formerly the Student Tablet PC) provides 250 tips for Tablet PCs. I've read the article before (when I first got my tablet) and now need to go back and see if there are any other tips I could use.
Free Technology for Teachers: 8 Ways to Build Websites (Not Blogs) for Free
I'd like to make the OneNote notebooks I use to present in class available online. Our campus is moving away from a traditional website to one that is easier for them to control, but much less customizable, so I'm hoping to find a free way to do this. This blog post could direct me in that way, hopefully.
Update:
- Yola: no bandwidth limits, files up to 15 MB supported, must use their software to create site.
- SnapPages: 1GB storage, seems as though you must use their software again.
- Hipero: could work for me. Have to create an account to find out if it will let me upload the right kind of files.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
- Wolfram Alpha with Google Firefox Add-in
Display Wolfram Alpha results in Google searches. No need to switch search engines when you can use both at once! - Parade of Games in Powerpoint
I've seen this site before, but not when I was working from a computer with LCD projector every class meeting. Going to have to explore here a little more now to see what is usable in my classes.
Labels: free, links, PowerPoint, Wolfram|Alpha
I've spent the last couple of hours or so looking for ways to take my paper and pencil surveys and quizzes that are given to my classes during the first week or two, and convert them into electronic formats. The surveys are a way to get to know my students. Having just had to pack up my school office, I realize just how much space papers can take up. Being able to do this electronically would be wonderful. Quizzes would also be great to have a way to give them easily, where students get their results immediately. I'll be using Blackboard for my Math 120 class and giving reading quizzes there. I can set them to only be available for a certain length of time, so students have to meet deadlines. Downside? Entering questions in Bb can be annoying. Upsides? Students get immediate feedback on their answers, have a place to go back and review their quizzes (for the 2 or so students who will do this), once the quizzes are created, I don't have to do much to maintain them (I'm nearly halfway done entering them already).
Here are some interesting things I've found along the way:
- ZohoChallenge
You can login with your Google account (at least that's how I got in). It allows you to create quizzes that are graded automatically. Downside, it looks like you can only have 25 "candidates" to keep records on. - proProfs
Free embeddable quizzes. Not sure how the data is collected for the instructor; will have to check it out later. - Self-grading Google quizzes
Cool way to grade multiple choice quizzes using Google forms. No immediate feedback to students, and not able to be used by students to study from, at least not easily. But, easy to grade once the assignment due date has passed.
