What have you learned from this blog?
August 30th, 2009
I’m writing an application for a fellowship and I would like to be able to show the influence that this blog has had on other instructors. The more I can show that my work has an impact, the more likely I am to get the fellowship. If I can get the fellowship, it is likely that I will have the chance to make a more serious impact on the state of mathematics, professional development, and higher education.
Here’s my request. If you’ve learned skills from this blog that have made it into your classes, please comment on this post and elaborate on what you’ve learned and how you’ve used it. It will help if you use your real name, where you teach, and where you are from. Thanks. 
maria
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Maria,
I discovered your blog over the summer, and it will have a great deal of impact on how I will be teaching next year. I have been teaching mathematics for 23 years at Bridgton Academy in N. Bridgton, Maine. Currently, I teach Precalculus, Calculus, and Accelerated Calculus as part of our College Articulation Program. In this program, our students earn transferable college credit from the University of Southern Maine or from the University of New England. I am always looking for ways to improve how I present mathematics to my students, and your blog has inspired me to try a number of new ideas. You have made me aware of a number of resources such as Mindomo to help show relationships between topics and concepts, Animoto to help enliven presentations, Camstudio (like Camtasia only open source) to record how to approach problems.
Our school has a large contingent of student athletes who travel somewhat frequently for contests. I introduced moodle LMS at a beta test level last year, but it represented a static duplication of notes which were already available on my webpage. I am hoping some of the resources you informed me about will be able to have a more dynamic effect and aid in helping students who missed class understand concepts better. Additionally, I feel the dynamic nature of many of these programs will aid in engaging the students who are in class.
Your site has also inspired me to begin my own teaching blog for what I am doing at my school. I have begun to use social networking to assist with my professional development and form connections with other math teachers.
If you would like me to go into more detail or flesh this out some more, feel free to contact me via email.
Thanks for a great site!
Pete Horne
Hi Maria,
I’m sure you’ve made a number of differences in my practice, but my memory is bad, so I can’t be sure where I picked various things up.
Here’s a very incomplete list:
• I intend to use clickers the next term I teach. (I’m on sabbatical this year.) I think I was motivated both by things I read here, and by the Teaching Undergraduate Mathematics conference.
• I used a few handouts and activities you shared though this site in my beginning algebra class. I’ll use more of them next time.
• The list you posted on your previous entry earlier today, about the technology boot camp, is something I’ll be using as a guide while I try to learn many of those things on my own.
I’m sure there’s lots more.
Regards,
Sue VanHattum
Math Professor,
Contra Costa College
Richmond, CA
To be fair, before I went to mccmath09:
I purchased a Wacom Bamboo tablet and used Jing to make screencasts for my online classes.
I reorganized my online classes to get away from the weekly format – excellent change.
I found out about TED Yalks.
I enhanced my MathYype skills
I got more involved with AMATYC.
I started Twittering and from thay joined the #mathchat, #lrnchat, and follow some great colleagues and have the best part of a conference every day – conversations with colleagues.
Hi Maria,
I just found your blog a few months ago, and I think it’s great. Exactly what I’m interested in… technology and undergraduate math pedagogy.
I’ve already started using Jing, after reading about it here. I’ve been looking into Camtasia too. I don’t teach any online courses yet, but I’ve gotten ideas about how to arrange materials in my course management system, based on your online calculus course.
Thanks!
Chris Hellings
Gwynedd-Mercy College
Gwynedd Valley, PA
Maria,
Firstly can I congratulate you on a fantastic blog and more importantly, a fantastic resource that you have created and shared with many individuals, including myself in down-under Australia! I have to be honest and say that I don’t teach any online courses nor do I teach at the tertiary level. I am a secondary teacher who teaches mathematics and science across a range of year levels. Recently, I have developed a keen interest in ICT and felt the need to extend my learning in this area, particularly with various web 2.0 applications. This interest resulted in me doing what many people do – use google to do a search! That is when I stumbled across your “little” blog.
I now subscribe to it and wait for your posts – your ideas, insights, opinions and thoughts. Also the tips that you provide with various applications have been time saving and very easy to follow e.g. powepoint to animoto on the topic of mathematical functions – please note that after reading this particular post, I then tried it myself and presented it to all the staff in our college. It was a hit!
Keep discovering, producing, writing and sharing with all of us because I’ll keep reading…. and writing too! But more importantly, keep sharing your passion for mathematics and mathematic education with all. A positive model for all!
Maria,
Your blog is fabulous! As the chair of AMATYC’s Innovative Teaching and Learning Committee (ITLC) I am frequently asked for advice on a variety of topics. My search always begins with a trip to your blog for the latest information and techniques. Thank you for your servie to all of us and continue with your fantastic work!
Thank you again,
Mary Beth
This blog and its resources not only help individual educators in their daily work, but also model how educators can form support, research and development communities and networks. It has been a major resource for the Math 2.0 interest group network, Natural Math network, LearnCentral and Classroom 2.0 networks, to name just a few I founded or actively participate in. For a particular example, Maria’s mind maps both summarize important topics (e.g. social web and mathematics) and show how mind maps can be used with students and for professional development and collaboration. Any support Maria can get will definitely go to a very good cause and will have a broad impact on tens of thousands of members in dozens of communities and networks that use her materials regularly.
Thank you,
Dr. Maria Droujkova
Natural Math
Maria,
Where to begin?
First of all, I always try out new software that I see recommended on this blog. (I can’t wait to get to Jarnel!)
I now have Jing on my computer and have used it to make short tutorials that I uploaded to Blackboard. I will be teaching online this fall. The math course is text based, but I will try to use some of the free software to have ‘virtual’ office hours where the students and I can do some math on the web.
I learned that you can do animations in Powerpoint,although learning how to do this would take more time than I am willing to invest right now.
I use Google docs all the time to manage my information from a Cloud since I am an adjunct and my documents need to be available all the time.
I also have used your advice on how to manage yourself online. I have joined Linkin and a Ning. And I have learned to follow blogs on igoogle where yours is the first one I look at in the morning.
Anne Dwyer
Maria,
Your blog has had a huge impact on me in the last year. I mooched your free samples of worksheets for intro/intermediate algebra, which improved my teaching directly. I’m trying to implement your suggestions about having students work problems at the whiteboard, and follow your examples of careful use of different colored markers in lecture. I am using the animated videos you made for function notation and inverse functions in my classes. I have used your MathType hints to improve my own worksheets and quizzes. Also, since I am a part-timer and don’t have a laptop, I work from home a lot and use various computers on campus, so shifting to Google bookmarks and Google docs has been a huge help. I tend to be timid in trying new technology, and your examples and tutorials have really inspired me to try things out. Also I’ve been showing my coworkers (other part-timers) some Google and Blackboard things, so your impact multiplies beyond the readers of your blog. Keep up the good work, I love it!
Karen Horn, adjunct instructor
Red Rocks Community College
Lakewood, CO
Your Teaching College Math blog along with all your other projects and involvements have been extremely informative and inspirational to many. Thanks to you I’ve expanded on my connections with math faculty and colleagues around the world. Thanks to you I’ve increased my usage of gizmos, gadgets and social networking sites. Thanks to you I’m a better teacher and a nonstop learner. Keep it up. You go, girl! — Fred
Oops. Forgot to say where I teach and where I’m from: Math Dept. Chair at Coastline Community College in Fountain Valley, CA.
ciao Maria!
… also I’ll continue to follow you and quote on My blog MATItiS
I’m an italian maths teacher in italian high school (ITIS e LST B.Castelli Bresciaand I’m a teacher trainer in two national project (m@t.abel and LIM project). your blog is very interesting and I have found many useful tips to set the teaching maths and statistics laboratories provided on time curriculum of my courses (I’m implementing two other wiki in Wikispaces and Zoho). Interesting also your blogroll for resources.THANKS!!!
ciao virginia
Maria-
This blog has not only taught me about sp[ecific technology, but has also motivated and inspired me to pursue the use of technology more seriously in my own teaching. I teach basic math courses at a junior college (nothing as inspiring as calculus). I have been following the blog for well over a year. Because of your encouragement through the blog, I have been an early adopter of online course technology at my school. I have used the blog for information about technology resources, as well as for guidance or instruction about how to actually accomplsih things. I record videos a Jing, and am looking to get Camtasia so I can do more. Never would have imagined this as a possibility without your comments. Your writing frequently srtimulates me to take my own work in a new direction or consider additional possibilities in my own practice. I am truly grateful for the information and enthusiasm you have provided in the time I have been following the blog.
Michael Wolf
Harcum College
Maria,
Your blog has inspired me to use technology in my classroom a while back. In fact, it is one of the reasons I am pursuing the EdD in Educational Technology. It is also the reason I follow you in Twitter. I do not want to miss a beat from your great ideas using technology in my math courses. Keep up the great work you have done so far!
While not an instructor I have certainly benefited from your thoughts on education. Your thoughts on the transactional nature of education from both an instructor and student perspective has been very valuable for my research for the Business Innovation Factory’s Lumina funded project to study the post secondary education experience (www.businessinnovationfactory.com/sel). It was my good fortune to find you through #eduhack on Twitter. Thanks for everything!
Hi Maria,
Your blog has certainly been useful in helping me find new tech resources – Jing and WizIq are both something I use regularly. And I’m now creating worksheets based on Wolfram Alpha. I was also motivated to create my own blog!
Keep up the good work – the information in your blog is very useful! Thanks!
Maria,
This site is the best resource to using technology to teach and learn mathematics and just about any subject. As a Community College Math Professor and Faculty Liaison to Distance Education at Des Moines Area Community College, I have use this site extensively for my own knowledge and for my colleagues. This is where I learned about how to use mind mapping, online office hours, tablet pc applications, wolfram alpha, and almost everything I use in my online and face-to-face mathematics courses. Thank you so much for all your efforts to support our use of technology!
Thank you for the information about TEX & Moodle. We had no idea!!!
I was researching LaTex today for Math in Moodle and we are using your site to better acquaint ourselves with the software. We host Moodle for about 60,000 students all over the world and I thought it was a great primer to LaTex and it’s potential benefits.
Thanks and good luck.
-Joe
Hello, I am a teacher of tomorrow. I have a biology degree and I am currently tutoring students in math and science. I taught one of my students how to use Excel as a math tool for processing equations. I realized that his teachers had never introduced him to this program. For myself, Excel is one the programs I use most often when compiling data. (I hope there’s no TM problems with mentioning that program name on your site.)
The information on this website has helped me see that there are others that can see the impact the information age is having on youth and how this must be recognized and must influence the teaching styles of tomorrow.
Thank you,
and best of luck with your fellowship.
You have given me hope. I have learned from you to take a chance and try new technology that connects with students. I have learned that giving presentations enriches one professionally.