New Year’s resolutions revisited

2011 was a year where I have really begun to integrate technology into how I do what I do. As someone with a background in technology I didn’t, and don’t, have a fear of technology but I don’t think I really ever used it as I should. Like all of my colleagues in LIT Tipperary I’ve used Moodle etc. over a number of years and as a Maths lecturer I’ve always been aware of the potential for using technology in my class, but I’m not sure that I’ve leveraged the potential of technology as much as I could, or should have. Due to a number of seemingly insignificant changes during 2011, I really feel like I’m now beginning to exploit the real potential of technology.

I didn’t sign up for Twitter in 2011 but really started using it in anger in 2011. Now that I’ve connected with so many people on Twitter, and am learning so much in the process, I’m really looking forward to where 2012 takes us all Through my interactions with educators on Twitter, I’ve become involved in initiatives like #edchatie, #coderdojo and #ccGlobal. These initiatives have pushed me out of my own comfort zone but have enriched my interactions with students in many ways. I’ve also used Twitter to source presenters for the ICT in Education conference,  http://www.lit.ie/Tipperary/Schools/default.aspx, which I believe has really strengthened the breadth of sharing that happens in Thurles in May every year.

2011 was also the year where Google+ came on stream. I couldn’t wait to sign up during the summer, frantically trying to get an invitation and waiting for the window of opportunity to use the invitation. I must admit however that I haven’t been bowled over by G+. I find I’m overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information that is to be found there. I think this is partly my own fault, because I haven’t really organised my connections into coherent circles, but for me twitter reigns supreme. I know that there is a huge volume of information etc. also to be found on Twitter, but I seem to have found a way of working with Twitter that works well for me. I suppose the beauty of Twitter for me is that, the brevity of the message focusses my own and other peoples thoughts. What I do love G+ for are the hangouts, which allow you to connect via webcam with others on G+. I have used hangouts to connect with others to discuss various #ccGlobal projects and to connect my daughters class with Michael Thornton’s (@mthornton78) class in Virginia USA.

2011 was also the year when I started this blog – I was shocked to be both nominated and shortlisted for the Edublog Awards in the best new blog category. What has really surprised me though is how much I enjoy writing the blog posts. I suppose what finally persuaded me to start the blog in 2011 is the fact that I’m hoping to start a PhD in 2012. The write up holds a particular terror for me, not to mention the rest!, so I decided to start blogging to get me into the writing habit. Hopefully I’ll be writing about the start of my PhD journey during 2012 .

My first blog post was my academic New Year resolutions http://pamobriensblog.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/new-years-resolutions/. The resolution I made, was to do what I do differently, and, as a way of focussing my mind I made a list of three ways I was going to do this – start the blog, use a wiki with my class and create podcasts to supplement my notes for my students. Unfortunately I’ve really only stuck to one of these, this blog which I’ve kept reasonably well updated. The other two haven’t worked out as I’d hoped thy would. To be honest, I think it’s more a discussion forum than a wiki that I wanted to use with my students. The aim of the discussion forum, is to encourage a greater understanding of the importance of Maths concepts in various areas of Computer Science, so this is where I’m going to focus my attention as I start a new academic term. Regarding the podcasts, it didn’t really happen for various reasons last term, but I will right that wrong in the forthcoming term. The equipment I was using, a Logitech webcam, really wasn’t fit for purpose so I acquired a Livescribe pen during last term. Once I complete the end of term corrections during the coming week, I will focus my attention on producing pen casts which will include audio with my notes. I hope these will be of benefit for my students. While I didn’t produce my own podcasts during the last term, I did source podcasts on YouTube for various topics, which seemed to benefit the students. The other use of technology I used in class, which worked very well last term, was Java programming. The feedback from the students was very positive, so I will continue to reinforce the very strong connections between Maths and programming by including more programming in my tutorials.

My final resolution is to submit a proposal to present at the CESI conference (http://www.cesi.ie/conference-2012) which is to be held in Portlaoise on the 24th and 25th February. As an organiser of the ICT in Education conference I’m quick to ask others to present but have always shied away from presenting myself. 2012 is the year where I push myself out of my comfort zone and share what I find useful from a technology perspective. I’m very aware that a lot of teachers can find technology very intimidating simply because of the sheer volume of tools and different technologies out there. I’m thinking of proposing a workshop on Twitter and Google+ hangouts, not as an expert but as an ordinary user of these technologies. As always, any thoughts etc. gratefully accepted.

Update on New Year’s resolutions

Now that I’m six weeks into the first semester, and therefore half way through, I decided to give an update on where I’m at with my New Year’s resolutions.  If you haven’t read about my resolutions check them out here.  The main plan when I set out my resolutions was to change how I do what I do.  While I haven’t used the technologies that I set out at the start I think I have made some progress in changing what we do in class.  My three main resolutions were

1. start a blog
2. use a wiki, specifically a discussion forum
3. create podcasts to support my course notes

The blog has been started, and continues to be updated, and I must say I am really enjoying writing these blog posts.  I had hoped to have used a wiki and podcasts at this stage but unfortunately I can’t give an update on these technologies in this post.  Regarding using the wiki, I haven’t used a discussion forum yet but the plan is to get this started next week.  I had planned to use it from the start, but decided to let the students settle in before I brought this in to the mix.  Having taught Maths to 1st year computing students for the past 4 years and to 2nd year computing students for the past 8 years, I often find that the students ease with Maths ranges from being very comfortable with the topics, right across the spectrum to sheer terror at the mention of an ‘x’ or a ‘y’.  This year with my first years seems to be following the same pattern.  The challenge for me, is to move on with those who are comfortable, and show them where and how they might use the Maths topics as future Computer Science graduates, while building the confidence of those who are terrified at the very thought of Maths.  I think the time is now right, to bring in the discussion forum, so here’s hoping it gets the students thinking about how Maths might be useful to them in their chosen field of study.

With the podcasts, or more correctly the videocasts, I have made very little progress so far.  This is mainly due to not having the correct equipment and work generally getting in the way of work!!  I have used a Logitech webcam to make an initial videocast, but the results were far from ideal.  I have since been told that a Livescribe Pen is what I really need, to do what I want to do, so the order is in and I can’t wait to get started with that!!  As always, the update will be here at some stage in the future  While I haven’t created my own podcasts, I have provided Youtube clips to support the topics that I have been covering in class.  These seem to be proving popular with students, particularly those who are less confident with Maths.

Enough about what I haven’t done yet, and on to what I have done and what seems to be working.  One of the problems we often find with students who study on Computer Science courses, is that they have very little idea of what they are getting themselves into, and are often very disillusioned when they realise what is actually involved.  With the availability of so many applications and various technologies, the perception is often that a computing course will involve just using these applications and technologies.  What a lot of people don’t realise is that, on computing courses, students are creating content rather than consuming it.  Writing applications and testing them is a very important aspect for a lot of our courses so that’s what I have been focussing on in class.  We have coded in Java in Maths class, check out the blog post on how we got on here.  We’ve used Java again this week, coding loops to calculate the terms and the sum of the terms in an arithmetic sequence.  I’ve been able to stress the importance of being able to calculate test data to make sure that their programs are working as they should.  We’ve also discussed why it’s important that the students can work through the various calculations themselves, as this understanding is crucial if they want to be able to code applications which perform these calculations.  In previous years I have spoken about the importance of understanding calculations and being able to create test data but I haven’t taken the next step of actually coding.  This year, I decided to take that step and the feedback so far seems positive.

So, the plan for the next 6 weeks of the semester is to use the discussion forum and to create podcasts and make those available for students.  I’m also hoping to bring in guest lecturers from industry to speak to the students about where Maths is used, to give a context to what they are covering in class.

Java code in Maths class

Keeping with my New Years resolution of trying new things while teaching Maths, I decided to try some Java coding in Maths class this week.  I teach Maths to first year Computing students and the past few weeks have been spent brushing up on various topics such as fractions, significant digits, prime factorisation, percentages and sequences and series.  These students are also learning their first programming language (Java) at the moment.  To give them a sense of the importance of being able to work through calculations, and create test data for their Java programs, I decided to work through a basic payslip calculation as follows:

John is paid a salary of €45,126 per year.   He is paid monthly.  PRSI is calculated as 8% of the total salary, pension as 2¼% of the total salary and union subscriptions as ¼% of the total salary.  His tax is calculated as 21% of the first €28,000 and 42% of the amount over €28,000.

1. Calculate the amount he pays in PRSI per month
2. Calculate the amount he pays in pension contributions per month
3. Calculate the amount of tax he pays per month
4. Calculate his union subscriptions per month
5. Calculate his take home pay per month

So we started by working through the calculations in class.  This gave us some test data with which to check that the program worked as it should.  Next we started to design our program breaking down the tasks into manageable steps starting with calculating the monthly salary.  This allowed us to talk through choosing their variables to hold the data and following good naming conventions when deciding on the variable names.   Rather than let the students loose to just write the program themselves (they are after all less than 3 weeks into learning Java), we worked through the program together.  We started by calculating the monthly pay and prnting this out.  We compiled the program and ran it to make sure we had the correct value using our test data from above.

Next they attempted to code the PRSI calculation after discussing how they might go about it, discussing performance issues around calculating a percentage (for example multiplying by 0.08 rather than multiplying by 8 and dividing by 100).  We then worked through the pension and union calculations in a similar fashion. We did these calculations one at a time, compiling and running after each one and checking to make sure that the calculations were correct.  Some of the students forgot to convert the percentage from 2.25 to 0.0225 etc so having the test data proved very useful.  Finally we tackled the tax calculation and the take home pay again checking that our calculations were correct.

What I wanted them to learn from the process was:

1. how you need to work through each step in a calculation in order to be able to create a program to do it
2. the importance of test data to confirm that the program works as it should (it’s not enough for the program to compile and run!!)
3. how they write their code can have an impact on the performance of the code that they write (many of the students created unnecessary variables and stored intermediate data which was not required)
4. the maths that they are doing in my class is not seperate from the Java that they are learning in other classes

I did coding with three different groups this week and I think that it was a huge success.  The students seemed to really engage in the process and I hope that they enjoyed it as much as I did and that they learned something in the process.  I chose Java because my students are currently learning Java and will need to be able to test the Java code that they write.  I think that Scratch could be used with younger students to work through Maths topics in a similar way.

Why I decided to try Podcasting?

I’ve heard people talking about podcasting for the last few years, but have never seriously thought about trying it out for myself.  What made me decide to try it out now was a workshop at the CESI conference in Portlaoise last February. The workshop was by Mark Pentleton (@markpentleton) and was a practical session on podcasting and eBook production.  We used iPads (this is where my love affair with the iPad began!) and the Pages software to put text and audio together.  On the drive home, my mind buzzing with ideas from the conference, I thought that producing notes with audio for my Maths classes might help students to grasp the concepts better.  Currently I produce class notes and tutorial sheets in Microsoft Word, which I upload to the college Moodle site.  We then work through the notes and tutorial sheets in class.  When working our way through the notes, we will often go through different examples, usually made up on the fly, as I find that the students learn more when things don’t work out cleanly.

While this has worked OK for the past few years, I have been looking for other ways to teach what I teach. A problem I often encounter teaching Maths in 1st year in college is that students come in with Maths baggage.  This commonly involves either sheer terror at the thought of Maths class or complete apathy, neither of which help!  So this year I’m going to shake up what I do, in a bid to overcome these problems.

This will involve a few things, one of which is podcasting.  I think that being able to see someone go through examples and hear their explanations will help the students to get a better understanding of what they are doing and why.  During the last 8 years teaching Maths, I am often shocked that students can sketch a parabola on a given interval, without having any idea of the properties of the quadratic function or how to sketch the function if they are not given the interval (apologies to those for whom the above makes no sense, but the mathematician in me has to come out somewhere!).  So I’m hoping that my podcasts will allow me to reinforce this context for students.  They will also allow me to remind students of things that they already know!  To supplement my own podcasts I have also been sourcing video clips on YouTube, which work through some of the concepts that I will be teaching.

The other change to what I do, will involve putting the Maths that I teach into context.  I teach Maths to 1st year computing students on courses such as Games Design and Development, Smart Sustainable Technologies, Computing and IT Support.  My plan is to incorporate guest lectures into my teaching. This will allow me to bring in people working in these areas, to talk to the students about how they use Maths in what they do.  I hope to supplement these lectures with video clips and examples of applications of Maths.  Finally I will also get the students to research applications of Maths in their chosen course of study.  I intend to use a wiki to get the students to discuss these applications, which is where my final resolution comes in.

So now you know where I’m coming from, feel free to share your thoughts, ideas and resources.

New Year’s resolutions

As we start the new academic year, I have decided to make a New Year’s resolution.   So, I hear you ask, what is the resolution? (or maybe that’s just the voices in my head!)  I don’t normally make New Year’s resolutions, but I thought why not resolve to do things differently this year.

For the past 10 years I have been a lecturer in Tipperary Institute, which from September 1st 2011 will cease to exist and we will become LIT Tipperary.  During my time teaching I have lectured in the areas of Computer programming and Algorithms before getting the opportunity to return to my first love – Mathematics. Over the past few years I have also been involved in organising the ICT in Education conference, an annual conference which gives educators an opportunity to come together and discuss how they integrate ICT in their classrooms.  So what does all of this have to do with doing things differently?

As one of the organisers of an event specifically aimed at helping teachers to integrate ICT into how they do what they do, you would be forgiven for thinking that I would be practicising what I am preaching.  To be fair, I do use technology but not to the extent that I should or could. Hence the resolution!

So here’s the plan : To coincide with the new academic year and the change from Tipperary Institute to LIT Tipperary I am going to change how I do what I do.  How I make these changes remains to be seen, but hopefully they will improve my teaching and help to instill the love that I have for Mathematics in my students.  So to start I have a couple of things I plan to do

1. Start a blog

Now that this post is published here it is !!  Hopefully, over the coming weeks, months and years this blog will continue to be updated.  If it doesn’t feel free to give me a poke in the comments, on twitter @pamelaaobrien or on Google+ at Pam O Brien.

2. Use a wiki with my classes

The main aim of this wiki is to get my students to start discussing the uses of Mathematics in their chosen field of study.  This will be in the areas of Computing, IT Support, Smart Sustainable Technologies and Games Design and Development.

3. Create podcasts to support my course notes

Traditionally I have used Word to produce my class notes and tutorial sheets which I then work through in class, including extra examples as I go.  This year I plan to supplement this style with podcasts to go through certain topics, so that students get the benefit of my explanations of what we are doing, and why, as they work through examples.  The ultimate plan is that I am working towards the Flipped Classroom, where students work through lectures at home and work through examples in their contact time.

So now that I have made my resolution and published it, all I have to do is keep it! I will keep you updated on progress.