UTS Digital Generation – Danny Mavromatis

I took on writing a Scratch application as my immersion task for Elective ‘E’. To avoid starting from ’scratch’ (is that where the name comes from?) I loaded an existing Maths project (solving quadratic equations) from the collaborative web site and improved it by changing the interface and adding a graph of the parabolic curve.

My fairly modest effort can be found here.

It may be interesting to recount how my efforts went. I am an experienced programmer so it didn’t take long to pick up the basics of how the coding was done and how events were handled in Scratch. The biggest difficulty I had was understanding how the ’sprites’ interacted with the ’stage’. From there things went fairly smoothly. Say about 2 hours all up. Putting in all the changes and additions I wanted took probably about another 8 hours. I would say 90% of that was fiddling with the GUI aspects of the application and the effects I wanted. Only about 10% of the time was actual coding.

Since this was a Maths application, is this something I would give to a Mathematics class? Definitely not, as there is too much superfluous activity and very little in the way of actual learning about mathematics. However, I would certainly consider it (or something similar) for an IST class.

I come from a background of having had a long professional career as a software developer which means that I am tech-savvy in most respects. (The use of multi-media might be an exception where I probably haven’t kept up with the latest developments. However, I embrace new technology where I can see it adding something to enrich people’s lives). The Internet is an extremely valuable information resource (Google, news), a convenience (banking, paying bills), and a source of entertainment (Facebook, games).

Having said the above, in my KLA of Mathematics, we have barely touched on the use of digital technology apart from scientific and graphics calculators. The emphasis in our coursework has been on the style of teaching (constructivist – learning mathematically) rather than any technology aids.

In my first practicum, my co-operating teacher used a Smartboard to deliver his content to his class and I did the same. The teacher mailed the lessons to his students to serve as their study notes. Whilst I saw some positives out of this approach such as being able to make the content brighter and more appealing with diagrams and so on, I came to realise that there were also drawbacks. The students did very little writing in class apart from working on exercises and I have concerns about mathematical literacy and the learning and use of a maths vocabulary.

In terms of my next practicum, I have no fixed ideas about strategies to incorporate technology into my lessons. It will very much depend on the resources available at the school and what I may learn from the remainder of this subject. I am open to ideas but I have to be convinced that the use of technology is more than just window dressing, but serves a real purpose in engaging the students and producing better educational outcomes.

By Dr Geoff Romeo

This article is the text of a keynote address made in Adelaide in 2004. It starts with describing how, in Victoria, there was early adoption of computers in education. However, the forward impetus seems to have now stalled and the author is making a case that a renewed effort needs to be made in this area.

He then summarises the current state of play about effective teaching and effective learning and how our knowledge about the brain, thinking and memory has increased dramatically in recent years.

The bulk of the article is devoted to two vignettes, painting two possible pictures of how technology could be used in secondary schools in the future. Whilst both scenarios he describes are clearly and deliberately exaggerated, they serve well to make points about two different directions that technology use could be incorporated into schools and the classroom.

I have to say that, in a perfect world, we would all like our children to be students of Plainville High (and be as interested in learning as Jessica and Kimberley). Yes, the scenario is highly idealistic. However, I am convinced that at least some aspects of the technology that is depicted will eventually find their way into secondary schools. One example is the type of research that the two students have accomplished over the internet such as finding links to original documents, maps and paintings. That kind of research ability is almost with us today. The major limitation is speed but that should improve rapidly over coming years.

All in all a very entertaining and informative article!