Right now, a number of the students I work with are all working on the dreaded order of operations concept. It really does frustrate many of them. Some of them learn the acronym PEMDAS. Others don’t.
Of those who do learn it, many of them take it very literally and it’s not difficult to see how this happens.
If you are unfamiliar with PEMDAS, it stands for Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction. It’s supposed to help you remember how to tackle complicated problems to arrive at the correct answer. However, it’s not as simple as it looks. To correctly apply it, you have to underand that this order isn’t permanently fixed. The steps expand to:
- Resolve anything in brackets [ ] or parentheses ( ).
- Resolve exponents.
- Perform all multiplication and division together, right to left.
- Perform all addition and subtraction together, right to left.
I think we all struggle with teaching this to our students, but I just discovered this helpful tutorial and find it completely helpful. I keep meaning to ask if I can bring it into work, although I may just turn it into a small card and develop a portable book of small cards.
Posted by Rebecca as Teaching methods at 7:57 AM EST
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I was reading this white paper on the role of copyright in the digital domain over the weekend. Great read, but one thing jumped out at me: Barlow suggested that our intuitions based on physical objects as property do not transfer to information as property because information is "abstract."
I’ve probably mentioned this a dozen times just because the question has never left my present thoughts, but one of the questions in my oral comps concerned the preservation of information. Basically, I was asked to consider information as an artifact. It was a fascinating question, and I loved debating it with my committee.
The concept of information may be abstract, however the practice of information is not. Preservation of information has long been a human concern. Oral traditions developed to preserve information. Writing developed as a means of preserving information. We develop recording devices still to preserve information, and we try to migrate our information through each of these changes.
Found via Library Link of the Day
Posted by Rebecca as e-learning at 7:37 AM EST
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This week is just a little crazy between covering for people already on vacation, trying to get some serious work done on my jewelry business, working on my NaNovel, and the impending holiday. I meant to share a lot of this last week, but this month really has been crazier than normal.
There has been quite a bit posted on blogging in acadmeic settings looking at the different roles. I had intended to weave a beautiful ramble on it, but for the sake of my sanity, I’m just sharing the links!
Posted by Rebecca as e-learning at 8:15 AM EST
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I’ve never made a secret that I’m not terribly fond of NCLB. No, it’s not what you think. I admire and support what it wants to accomplish, but I feel like it’s not the most realistic thing out there.
Yes, we need to raise the bar for our children to be able to face the current, ever-changing world, but we need to be mindful of how we do it. I read this article from Worthwhile on field trips being discouraged, and it really just got to me. The focus is on the children who would not under normal circumstances get to see certain things, but I think the damage this could do affects every single child.
We’re at this crossroads in the development of our education system. We’re at Point A. We acknowledge that Point A just isn’t good enough for our kids, and we know we want more. That’s a n incredible step forward right there. But then we look at Point B, and we say that in order to reach Point B, we going to remove relevant experiential educational opportunities from our children’s curriculum. The one thing that has the chance of keeping kids motivated, keeping them engaged, and we’re throwing it away in an attempt to make our kids competitive with children who do hands-on projects and go out and experience their world.
Is it just me, or is there something greatly wrong with this picture? Like we’ve managed to just take a great step backwards?
Posted by Rebecca as Experiential Learning at 8:28 AM EST
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One of the things I miss most from my past life as a museum educator is the curriculum design aspect. I used to love holing up in my office, among all the astronomy books and videos, the old planetarium shows at my back, huddled over books and a notebook, and the old Apple they set up for me. The one that barely spoke to the network so I could send finished lessons and workshops on to the Education Specialist. I love the research and the creative process inherent in creating any piece of curriculum. It’s so much fun!
One of the challenges inherent when designing curriculum in an informal setting is trying to draw on the prior knowledge of the students. In the informal setting, the teacher is often confronted with this great unknown. What does the student bring with them when they walk into a workshop or class? Traditional curriculum can anticipate this question a little bit by designing not only the course, but also the prerequisite courses that will give the student the necessary skills to succeed in the current course. For the informal learning environment, this isn’t always possible.
I’m noticing more informal learning situations where a structured class system is set in place to give a student all the skills necessary to walk away from the series with useful skills and information. It’s a great idea because it promotes breaking up important information into relevant and digestable chunks and then creates reinforcing moments.
Inspired by this article from Experienced Designer Network, found via elearnspace
Posted by Rebecca as Teaching methods at 7:49 AM EST
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One of the features that makes community-driven, community-created spaces so popular is that its members contribute. One of the characteristics that gives knowledge management the potential to be incredibly powerful to its user base is that its members contribute.
I suppose I’d never really thought about that connection until I read this article from Scotland on e-learning solutions in this era of community-building solutions. It’s true when you think about it. People are more likely to use what they themselves have a hand in. They take pride in it and encourage others to use it, too.
Found via elearnspace
Posted by Rebecca as e-learning, Knowledge Management at 8:09 AM EST
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I tutor.
I tutor in math, reading, and writing at a tutoring center. One of my regular high-level math students skipped school to avoid a test recently becasue she didn’t feel ready for it. She’d had another tutor when she was doing her review, and his teaching style didn’t match her learning style, so she felt unprepared and skipped school to avoid the test. I was furious with her.
Another of my regular high-level math students is gaining confidence in her math abilities. She nearly bombed a test becasue she didn’t feel confident in her abilities. A couple of weeks ago, she took her next test. I’d been working on building her confidence and showing her that she did, in fact, know what she was doing. She made a high B on that test!
I’m also trying to help a friend navigate her college algebra class. She’s another one of those who learns better if she can practice with someone watching her. She’s a perfectionist who keeps ending up in classes where the teacher may or may not cover things well. A number of things are working against her. She does actually know much of the material, but because she’s so methodical in her approach, she tends to work slowly and carefully. Next on her tutoring plate, building up her speed to help her get through an entire test in one sitting!
Posted by Rebecca as Reflective teaching at 8:03 AM EST
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I should have known my days with my ex were numbered when his mother disapproved of my career, which she equated with "entertainment education". She is a public school teacher, a really good one at that. I was still in my museum educator career. She felt I was throwing my future away when I was capable of so much more than edutainment.
I think that people have this weird impression of learning situations outside of a desk-filled classroom. Despite advances made in education in the past decade, education is a stuffy experience that takes place in a room filled with uncomfortable desks, and where tests are the only form of assessment possible. Anything outside of that isn’t education.
I knew as a museum educator that this is how my public school teacher friends viewed my job. As far as they were concerned, I sat around all day eating bonbons and occassionally played with kids and giving off this illusion that I was doing something worthwhile. It’s amazing to realize e-learning and instructional design suffer the same assumptions about their work.
Unsurprisingly, I’m looking at both for potential career moves now.
Posted by Rebecca as Teaching methods at 8:01 AM EST
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