Thursday, May 28, 2015

A COORDINATE SAT/COMMON CORE PROBLEM

Note that the figure is not drawn to scale and point C(x,y) is on line L. Hopefully image file will upload and be viewable. You may have to click on IMG to enlarge.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Perspectives on Math Ed Tech

Discussed this often but worth revisiting in light of some outstanding new online apps...

My fundamental belief is that tech enhances and supplements instruction. Most students can not learn concepts without effective instructors who understand the variety of ways in which children learn. The best adaptive software can not replace human interaction. However, ed tech has come a long way in enabling a skilled instructor to help children better understand essential ideas thru visualization and interactivity. But there is often too much emphasis on creating "pretty" graphs or real-world activities, not enough on helping children grasp the "big ideas" of math. You can always tell when a company has or does not have strong professional math consultants on board. That is where most products are still lacking. But there is hope and I plan to review some of the best I've seen. I'll mention 3 for now, well just the 1st letter of each. I'm sure you can fill in the gaps!
1) G
2) D
3) W