Technology & NCTM’s Annual Meeting: A Closer Look - Part 2

Figure 1

As mentioned in my previous blog post, there are 94 sessions which emphasize technology’s role in math ed in their sessions. I did an analysis of the grade levels of the talks. In figure 1 note that the most frequent grade level for tech sessions at the NCTM annual this year is in the high school range. If you include the 8-10 range as partially high school you have a total of 56 sessions appropriate for a high school audience.That’s almost 60% of the total. I suspect the conference program committee missed this fact.

See previous 2 blog posts which discuss the upcoming conference (here and here.)

The Moon Challenge Revisited

John Kennedy, Sept. 12, 1962

There is no question that going to the moon in 1969 was hard, but what's even harder today is making math learning extraordinary. Imagine if we could make the common student statement "I'm not good at math" disappear. It sounds impossible, but it really isn't; it's just plain hard. John Kennedy put a deadline (end of the decade-1960s) on when man would descend on the moon. We as teachers should do the same so we have a target when we'll solve the math problem. The educational gurus have tried to do this before (e.g. No Child Left Behind) and have failed because the goals set forth were not realistic. So what is a realistic goal for math education?

Larry Cuban makes a distinction between complex and complicated problems. See link. Complex hard is different from complicated hard in dealing with problems to solve. The latter can be done through systematic planning and human control. A complex system is more like getting a student to succeed in school.

In math education (ME) we tackle this complex system and don't do very well. (See this.) We could make ME complicated if we stood the current ME on its head and opted for a more student friendly curriculum. For example, what would happen if we created "textbooks" that kids actually wanted to read instead of our current textbooks which focus on what teachers think students ought to endure because like spinach it's good for them? It's possible, but not very likely because solving ME's dilemmas are thoroughly complex.

Here's some ideas worth thinking about when you sit down to write a lesson plan.

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." John Kennedy

"Across the educational landscape, a broad variety of extraordinary teachers and exceptional schools employ technology to transform student experiences, facilitating deep engagement and meaningful learning.  But take a moment to re-read that last sentence.  Note the words “extraordinary” and “exceptional.”  These are words one commonly hears associated with teachers and schools where technology is used in ways that truly enhance learning.  My goal is to be able to someday re-write that sentence so that we can report that technology is helping ordinary teachers and schools to do extraordinary things." Barry Fishman (1)

1. Fishman, B. "It's not about the Technology" Teachers College Record, Date Published: July 06, 2006. http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 12584

Technology & NCTM's Meeting in San Diego: A Closer Look

In CLIME’s 30+ years as a technology affiliate of NCTM a lot of changes have occurred in the world of technology. From the early programming days of using BASIC and Logo to today’s coding challenges we’ve come full circle. The biggest change is the development of social media (conveyance) tools that expands student’s and teacher’s opportunity to collaborate and communicate via Web 2.0 tools. There is also a plethora of dynamic math (action) software & technologies.

So in the spirit of looking for examples of the above I took a deep dive into the haystack containing 759 sessions and came up with 94 that mention technology terms.

Dynamic Math software and apps

Leading the pack with 16 sessions is Desmos and its applications. STEM and STEAM have 15 sessions. Coming in third (which was a surprise to me) with 10 sessions is coding. Graphing calculators are highlighted in 5 sessions while Geogebra has only 5. Other assorted references to technology appear in 14 sessions.

Here’s a list of all the technology related terms and the number of sessions in which they were found.

It’s interesting how a program like Desmos has caught fire. It is a good graphing program which can be used as an activity builder. But what makes it inspiring is the support and leadership provided by the Desmos staff.

Web 2.0 & Collaboration

There is only one session (#683) devoted to teachers collaborating with teachers online. That’s not to say there are not others devoted to students going online to collaborate with other students. I didn’t come up with any.

Twitter also has one session late on Saturday. Here's the description:

Have you heard Twitter is a great way to connect to other teachers? You've created an account, but aren't sure how to leverage its use for collaboration? Chats are often a nice way to join a conversation. Join us for a burst session focused on making you comfortable with types of chats you may find and some tips on joining the conversation. 

Go here for more details.

The highlighted sessions are the ones I hope to attend.

CLIME Meeting

If you are planning to be in San Diego next month please note the date, time and place for our meeting. More details to follow in future blogs.

The topic for the meeting will be the same as the title of this post: Technology and NCTM's Meeting in San Diego: A Closer Look.

If you wish to be removed from my mailing list, please let me know by writing Unsubscribe in an email message to me.

Technology Sessions in San Diego?

The rollout of the descriptions of the sessions at the annual NCTM Conference are out now (link)  and as usual CLIME is busy analyzing the technology content of the sessions.

This year is interesting in that there isn’t a tool & technology strand. My thought was that there would be a much lower number of tech oriented sessions since all speakers would pick one of the proposed trends & topics for their talks. Fortunately, many of the speakers managed to include a tech session within the context of the proposed themes which were broad enough to include technology.

Ideally we shouldn’t need a tech & tool strand because most of the presenters (by this time) should be tech savvy enough to demonstrate how they use tech within the context of their theme-based talk/workshop/burst. But based on the number of presentations (12%) mentioning some form of technology I don’t think we’re at a point in time where we can ignore what the revised technology principle envisions.

Technology sessions: Out of 760 sessions there were 93 that were tech related. See list here.

In my next blog post I’ll go into more detail about some of them.

A reminder: Our annual CLIME meeting will be held on Thursday. Here are more details.

CLIME's Annual Meeting

Thursday, April 4, 2019

7:30pm - 8:30pm

Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel

Room: Aqua 310

If you are planning to attend please let me know. Link.

More information will follow in our next blog post.

If you wish to be removed from my mailing list, please let me know. Writing Unsubscribe will do the trick.

Rolling Dice Microworld and Learning Fractions

Common Core, no more? The new governor of Florida has decided to eliminate their version of the common core standards and replace it with something else. But he doesn’t know what that will be. All he knows at the moment is that he is committed to teaching the basics (reading, writing and mathematics). 

Meanwhile a teacher posting on My NCTM’s community forum suggests that teachers should not use a particular textbook because it isn’t aligned with the standards. 

Another 4th grade teacher who was falling behind her common core pacing chart decided to skip a chapter on probability to try to catch up. My reaction was what a missed opportunity. I’m sure she wanted her students to learn their fractions but skipping the probability chapter is not the best way to do that since fractions can be taught using probability as a motivator. 

She may have known that, but her concern that a poor performance by her students on standardized tests would reflect badly on her teaching forced her hand. 

Probability would enhance student interest in learning fractions, but this teacher needed to save time and go directly to the fraction skills chapter. So how can an elementary teacher get the best of both worlds?

The answer is to blend the learning of fractions in the context of probability using technology in the same lesson unit or chapter. It’s too bad textbook companies don’t do a good job with that. 

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Here’s my attempt to help with solving this problem. I’m working on a mini probability project that includes three dynamic microworlds written in Scratch. 

These three links will get you an initial peek at these three draft activities.

Is it Fair: The Single Cube Game? Yes, but why?

Is it Fair: The Two Cube Game? No, but why?

The Three Cube Game? Who will win?

CLIME - Technology in Math Ed - A Year in Review

Dear friend of CLIME,

Here are some of the blogs CLIME posted in 2018.

Another Rags to Riches Story
What to do with a Broken Calculator that's Broken...

Technology in Seattle - a Showcase of How to Use it Effectively(?)
High School Math is Not Working
Will Blended Learning be a Game Changer?
On Making the Ordinary Extraordinary in Learning Math with Technology
It's the Pedagogy, Stupid
Focusing on the M in STEM in the High School Math Curriculum

Your feedback on any or all of the above posts will be most appreciated.

It's a new year and a time of transition for CLIME. We will be discussing that issue and others related to math & technology at our annual CLIME meeting this year in San Diego.

If you are planning to be in San Diego next April please note the date, time and place for our meeting. More details to follow in future blogs.

CLIME's Annual Meeting

Thursday, April 4, 2019

7:30pm - 8:30pm

Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel

Room: Aqua 310

A Few Things That Annoy Me

Andy Rooney (1919-2011)

As I notice and wonder about blogs that I read, I'm finding two themes (memes?) that are very annoying. They are (1) instructional and (2) notice & wonder routines. Now that I’m retired and become more like Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes fame, I find my personal routines becoming more and more distasteful. After my morning coffee (which I look forward to) I do the following: (1) Clean the litter and litter area (we have 5 cats) (2) Make the bed assuming of course that my wife is up by then (3) brush my teeth with a fancy battery powered toothbrush (Quip) that takes 2 agonizing minutes to complete and (4) take my mouthful of vitamins which takes a while to sort out and swallow. Then I finally make my second cup of coffee and go to my desk to think creative thoughts (like the ones I’m writing now) and time begins to fly by. So needless to say I’m not fond of chore routines. Unfortunately, they are mostly necessary evils.

My concern about using instructional routines in math classrooms is that they can take over and become boring to students. Speaking of boring there are the notice and wonder routines. The ones I notice and wonder about are happenings in classrooms of bright, bushy tailed students that will notice and wonder excitedly about anything including spilled milk. But I wonder about the students who are less enthusiastic noticing, but only wondering and joking about why the teacher is asking such a boring question.

Now don’t get me wrong. If notice and wonder routines work for you, then by all means continue.

I found out from working at an adolescent kid’s camp in Maine back in the 70s that anti-routines where the best anecdote for boredom. At the end of each day the counselors would gather and plan the events for the next day. They were different each day. I know that camps are supposed to be about fun, but they are also educational. The lessons I learned at that camp (when I was in my 20s) served me well. I included an element of surprise in my math classes every day especially for those students who suffered from routines paralysis.