Back around 1980, I got my first computer. As I recall, it had the brand name Sinclair and it was connected to a little black and white TV we had in the basement. It had a minimal amount of memory, but I could save programs to a cassette tape connected to the IO port. That computer found its way to a landfill in Alaska a long time ago. It amazes me that almost every one of my students (as well as myself) carries a small computer in their pocket that is hundreds of times more powerful than that old Sinclair. Not only is it more powerful, but my smartphone fits in the palm of my hand. It also amazes me at the growing number of uses a smartphone has in the classroom.
Some Tips on Collaborating in Google
In earlier post, I described how I set up teams in my College Algebra class and utilize Google shared documents to work through projects. In this post, I want to demonstrate how students can communicate with each other through notes and comments in these shared documents.
Most of the student teams in my face-to-face classes utilize in person meetings along with collaborations through comments. My online students do not usually meet in person so online comments and email (and some phone calls) are their primary means of collaboration.
A Different Approach to Optimization Problems
Historically, maximization problems have been a problem for calculus students. Not so much in finding critical points from functions and classifying them, but finding the objective function to begin with. Students rely on basic examples to mimic. We wonder why they can’t carry out more complicated examples. They are able to model simple physical situations after much practice, but flounder when faced with slightly more complicated problems because they don’t understand the complication well.
As the maximization and minimization problems become more complicated, using a table to organize examples of what is being modeled becomes more and more useful. Let’s look at another examples of how this might work.
Problem A rectangular tank with a square base, an open top, and a volume of 8788 ft3 is to be constructed of sheet metal. Find the dimensions of the tank that has the minimum surface area.
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Sharing – The Google Way
Setting up collaborative teams and putting a project in place that encourages collaboration is just the start. The pressures of work, schedules, and family commitments conspire to draw student into a silent shell. They only care about getting homework assignments and papers done…collaborating is the furthest thing from their mind.
In the middle of a stressful semester, returning emails from fellow teammates are not the highest priority. Trying to collaborate on a document via email is even more challenging. If several students are working on the same document simultaneously and making changes, it is a nightmare to keep track of the changes. This is where a shared document can help.
PhotoMath: New Killer App for Students?
Over the past few hours, many news sources like CNN and Engadget have reported on the app PhotoMath. According to their website, this app claims
PhotoMath reads and solves mathematical expressions by using the camera of your mobile device in real time. It makes math easy and simple by educating users how to solve math problems.
Wow! What an enlightened view of how this app might be used.