Mr. Pan-tastic vs. the MathMan

Day 11, July 22, 2015

Technology in the Classroom

Flipped Learning

Apparently, the Mathman, Mr. Velisa Anusic, is the winner here. Both his learning and work experience are incredibly rich.  His association and personal encounters with Dr. Marian Small, Dan Meyer, Jo Boaler and other big math personalities he knows (but of course, does not necessarily know him) are enviable.  On the other hand, Mr. Pan (short for Mr. Panem and how my students address me) is just a proud math education “newb”.

Modesty aside (but just for a while), the technology that Ve Anusic employs in class are not new to me.  I had the chance to know and apply technology in the classroom by attending Edcamps that are organized and supported by the 21^st Century Learning department in my school board.  I am very much familiar with Google Docs, Google Forms, Learning Management Systems, Flipped Classroom, creating and using videos to support learning, instant feedback and math tools.  I do not want to specify each of these apps and web tools. You can have a glimpse of these applications, live via my Grade 10-11 Math class and Cooperative Education websites. 

Now, with so much modesty, I admire how effectively, appropriately, and interestingly the MathMan makes use of these technology in our class to support our understanding and making our learning our own. Desmos, Gizmoz, Smore.com, Wolfram Alpha are some of the few “take-aways” I wanted to introduce in the classroom to facilitate if not hasten the student’s understanding and learning of math with Mr. Pan.

Equipped with the understanding of these technology, I can perhaps, improve my instructions if I can build my lessons to follow the SAMR approach recommended by Dr. Ruben Puentudura. SAMR claims to improve problem solving skills; student engagement, motivation via publication, and differentiation in the classroom.  I think SAMR is a different way to categorize used of technology for learning.  However, learning is not supposedly linear. Learning should be exponential.  Students can learn and educator can teach more effectively by continuously creating new tasks by continuously redefining the use of technology to support the creation of new knowledge and then further create new technology to further support mathematical problem solving and thinking.  Learning is not constant, it’s a variable, that can be both dependent on and independent of technology.

                                                                                                                                                                        

Kudos to the MathMan, you and the summer ABQ course are fantastic.  My suggestion for you to improve on in the course is first to adopt a masculine name and even if life is short, wear long pants.  I hope you realize that I am just kidding.  

Finally, to my sleepless bloggermates, it has been a pleasure learning with you.  Don’t listen too much to pop music.  Math education is not all about the bass (or base), it’s all about the “Balance”.  Why rise and run if you can Pi ?

Jesse Panem