This is the 2nd semester I am flipping my Intermediate Algebra classes. The students are required to access the online ebook and take notes BEFORE coming to class. I have Livescribe pencast examples available for them to view on the course calendar as well. For more information on how I am flipping my classes, see the article I wrote for eCampus News.
Flipping the class frees me up to have the students do group work and activities during class to reinforce the topics from the lesson. I can more easily work individually with students having difficulty, while the rest of the students are helping one another.
I was awarded a chance to teach in the iPad classroom this semster, so I have been looking for ways to have my students create and share on the iPad, rather than just use it as a calculator or to search the internet.
Today my students were working in groups on a handout. After completing the page, each group was assigned 1 of the problems and required to write their solution or graph on an iPad to share with the class. The application we are using on the iPad is called Doceri 2.0 (previous blog post about the app). It enables students to show their solution as an animation or video. Students can even edit their work before exporting it as a video. Since the classroom can get pretty loud, I had them record the animation, while picking up the sounds from the classroom (then I deleted all sound before uploading the following videos to YouTube, to protect the students’ privacy).
To present their animation, each group had one member connect their iPad to the Apple TV that is in the room and then “play” their animation. We discussed the group’s solution or graph and answered any questions before the next group presented to the class. I was really pleased with how well it worked!
I was able to get permission from a few students to share their work.
This first video is a student’s graph from today’s flipped Algebra class. They were to graph the linear equation by plotting points. The student chose to have graph paper as their background for their animation.
The second video shown here is another graph done by a different group/student. This student found the x-and y-intercept of the linear equation and then graphed the line.
The third video was created by a student who was given a problem to solve a formula for a given variable.
The students seem to be enjoying the experience!
I have really enjoyed watching them work through the problem, as opposed to just looking at their final solution/graph. If the classroom was quiet (but how much fun would that be??), I would have had them explain their steps in the video.
I will post more of their work as the students progress in their math ability and their ability to show their solutions on the iPad! This is only the 2nd week of class, and they have progressed quite a bit already. Many of them had never used an iPad before, and none of the students had ever used Docer 2.0. I am really proud of how hard they are working to succeed in my class!
