Showing posts with label curriculum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label curriculum. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Teach real math through computer programing

In this TED Talk, Conrad Wolfram says:
... the part of math we teach -- calculation by hand -- isn't just tedious, it's mostly irrelevant to real mathematics and the real world. He presents his radical idea: teaching kids math through computer programming.
This is a full TED Talk, it will last 17 minutes but it is well worth it.



I remember struggling with word problems for a time in my early schools days. Some additional help was required and then one day, it clicked. I realized that the words could indeed be changed to an equation, that the equation could indeed be solved. Since then, problem solving has been one of my strengths. Not even the world's worst word problem stops me any more:

If a hen and a half laid an egg and a half in a day and a half, how long would it take a monkey 
with a wooden leg to kick all the seeds out of a dill pickle?

Once I found this problem in Tom Robbins novel "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues", it went to memory and hasn't left yet.

Do you have a memorable word problem?



Franklin, MA

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Curriki - collaborative open source curriculum

For the education community amongst us, this site I recently found seems to be quite good. It's about page tells us:
Curriki is more than your average website; we're a community of educators, learners and committed education experts who are working together to create quality materials that will benefit teachers and students around the world.
Curriki is an online environment created to support the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them. Our name is a play on the combination of 'curriculum' and 'wiki' which is the technology we're using to make education universally accessible.
Curriki is built on the XWiki platform, an open source development platform and "Next Generation Wiki" application developed in Java and released the LGPL open source license.
Curriki is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.
Go explore Curriki here


Thursday, July 30, 2009

Change the math pyramid

Are you going to use calculus in your real life? Probably not. The odds are you would make better use of statistics! Listen to this simple proposal on a change to math curriculum.



What are the odds of this proposal succeeding?

What is a better sale? 2 for 1, or half off?

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

"online coursework can be an excellent option"


When most people think about online learning, they think about adults taking online university classes. Or they might think about the online training that occurs in many workplaces. But online learning opportunities occur in the K-12 sector as well and are increasingly popular with students and their families.

The Sloan Consortium estimates that at least 1 million K-12 public school students took an online course last year. This represents approximately 2% of the national K-12 public school student population and is a 22–fold increase since 2000. About 20 states have statewide virtual high schools that deliver online courses to students across the state.
Dr. Scott McLeod writes on his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant, this post about online learning opportunities.

As you read the following, do a simple replacement exercise, substitute "Franklin, MA" in place of Iowa.
A robust online learning infrastructure for students makes a lot of sense for the state of Iowa (and I’m glad there’s a bill in the Iowa House to consider it). If we’re honest with ourselves, we will recognize that most of our school districts will NEVER be able to provide the curricular diversity that most of our graduates need to be effective digital, global workers and citizens. If we’re truly honest, we also will recognize that the Iowa Communications Network (ICN) is not a viable future option. The ICN is a closed, aging network and the course offerings (and monies) there, like everything else in the world, must move to the Web. Whether it’s a statewide virtual school or some other model, we must significantly increase the number of online courses available to Iowa students if we are to provide them access to the high-quality learning opportunities envisioned in the Iowa Core Curriculum.
You can click through to read the full article here.

Franklin has started exploring this option and should continue to do so. It is not a silver bullet to save money. There will likely be some contractual and procedural changes required to implement appropriately. It will be some work but it should be worthwhile to develop our children for life and learning in this new world.