Session Five February 5 - February 11

I believe that a technology integration "best practice" that I use in the classroom is My MathLab. www.mymathlab.com I have been using this program for the past four years now teaching over 14 classes using it.

There are many benefits from using this program. For starters, the program is web based and the students can work on their homework problems anywhere they can find Internet access. Not only can the students work on their homework in our Math Lab on campus, but they can work from home as well. The program itself is powered by Blackboard, so many of the menu options are similar to what we see when we log into Blackboard. Also the students who use the My MathLab are not required to purchase the textbook because the textbook is online for the students to access. The only requirement for the students to purchase is the pass code. Having the textbook online is nice for the students because if they have difficulties with a particular problem, they can access the textbook and it will take them to the exact pages in the textbook that explain how to work through their problem.

The program also contains videos and animations for students to view if they want options or if the explanations from the textbook are not enough. The animations are sometimes childish, but they get the point across. The videos are professional instructors working through very similar problems on the screen.

I also like using My Mathlab because two student can work together on their homework and help each other out and I do not have to worry about them copying off of each other. This is because each student has similar problems with different values in their problems. So two students can work through the same problem together, but their answers are going to be different in the end.

The reason many other teachers are not using My Mathlab is because it is something new and "not traditional." Many teachers, (especially the ones that have been teaching for years!) believe their techniques have worked this far, so why change? Some teachers believe that My Mathlab is too confusing for the students. Others have the misconception that My Mathlab does the problems for the students and the students do not learn the process of working through the problems. But I think the main reason is that My Mathlab takes some time to learn how to teach using it as a tool, and many instructors do not want to take the time to learn something new if they can keep teaching using the traditional format.

Activity Log for the week: February 5 - February 11

Monday, February 5, 2007: downloaded week 5 podcast and listened to the lecture.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007: got cameras and video equipment ready for Wednesday's video taping and photos of the Interwrite PRS clickers in action for my projects.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007: brought the Interwrite PRS clickers to school. Used the clickers in my review session for both of my math classes as a tool for the review session in preparation of their final exam. I will post photos and hopefully short videos on the Internet as part of my projects in the next week or so.
Thursday, February 8, 2007: transcribed notes from podcast. Started uploading photos to my website.
Friday, February 9, 2007: responded to classmates blog posts.
Saturday, February 10, 2007: posted week 5 blog post for myself and responded to many classmates blogs.
Sunday, February 11, 2007: continue to comment on classmates blog posts. Finish uploading photos to my website for Project #1