Skip to main content

NCTM 2012 - Technology Workshop Suggestions

In a recent post, I talked about planning for my talk at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference next week in Philadelphia. Not surprising, I am doing a presentation on dynamic mathematics with Sketchpad. Since effective use of technology in education is such a passion of mine, it's something I tend to want to share with others.  If I was able to, I would also be attending as many technology focused workshops/sessions as I could. Being on the vendor end of things, that is virtually impossible since I spend most of my time at the booth.  Though - the beauty of the booth is I get to play with technology all day and meet and show lots of teachers what they can do with dynamic math.

Anyway, I know attending these conferences can be overwhelming sometimes, since there are so many choices at any one time so it's hard to know which sessions to try to go to. I myself use to have a daily focus.  The first day I might focus on algebra and technology, so look for sessions that were on either of those topics, but preferably both.  And the next day, focus on geometry and technology.  It at least narrowed my choices a bit.

For those of you looking for technology focused sessions, Ihor Charischak (@climeguy) has posted a comprehensive listing of all the technology sessions at NCTM, so it's a terrific place to go to narrow your search. He has a couple of different links - first one is to highlighted sessions.  Naturally, I will push some of the folks there I know personally or have seen personally and can highly recommend myself: Cliff Konold (co-developer of TinkerPlots), Nick Jackiw (developer of Sketchpad), Dan Meyer, Ron Lancaster, Scott Steketee, Karim Kai Ani (founder of Mathalicious), and Annie Fetter.  I don't know the others on this page, but if Ihor recommends them, they are bound to be great!

There is an additional link to all technology sessions, including the highlighted sessions. From this longer numbered list, I just want to recommend a few myself, either that I know personally or have seen present before. (The numbers referenced and longer descriptions can be found in the link here.)
  • #59 - Gail Burrill
  • #93 - Mark Augustyn and Kathy Shafer 
  • #94 - Ron Lancaster
  • #128 - Cliff Konold
  • #139 - Daniel Scher (and Janice Manning, Matt Silverman)
  • #142 - Elizabeth DeCarli
  • #143 - Ihor Charischak
  • #155 - Karen Hollebrands
  • #206 - Jocelyn Van Vliet
  • #214 - Art Mabbott
  • #260 - Karen Greenhaus (shameless self promotion!! )
  • #294 - Arjan Khalsa
  • #339 - Tim Pope
  • #384 - Juli Dixon
  • #394 - Bill Finzer
  • #555 - Irina Lyublinskaya
  • #587 - Judith Hicks (with Elizabeth Gasque)
  • #592 - Max Singerman Ray
  • #617 - Kathy Shafer and Angela Greene
Thanks to Ihor and CLIME (booth #1337)  for putting together this great list and keeping us apprised of all things math technology related! Be sure to stop by their booth.

Hope to see many of you at NCSM (Booth #1-305) and NCTM (Booth #902) next week in Philly.  I am there all week, mostly found at Key Curriculum's booth.  Would love to say hi and connect - maybe show you a thing or two about dynamic mathematics!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Implementation Dip - It's Not Just Test Scores, It's Any Change

I read this article yesterday by Andrew Ujifusa entitled New Tests Put States on Hot Seat as Scores Plunge . Basically, states that have implemented new standardized tests to address revised academic standards, such as the Common Core State Standards, have seen a drop in student scores, so panic has ensued. What I want to know is: has no one ever heard about the implementation dip? Whenever you try to implement something new, there is going to be a period of adjustment, scores will go down if we are talking tests, classroom behaviors will change and achievement will go down if new teaching strategies are being implemented - in short, any time you try something new, it is NOT going to go exactly as planned!  Mistakes will happen, things will be bad before they get better - it's part of the whole change process.  Which is why we need to be implementing changes slowly, early, and over time so that things that go wrong can be adjusted. Image from images.google.com What ...

Social Media's Impact on Personal Life - Personal Reflections

The question - does social media impact personal life? The answer - yes.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing? The answer - it depends. I have been on vacation the past week or so and am currently on personal leave to finish writing my dissertation proposal (which, as you can see, I am procrastinating!) During my vacation, I swore I would take a break from blogging, Twitter, email, and all things electronic. I lied. I admit - I did honestly make the attempt and in fact, did not turn on my computer one time.  However, the iPad is a constant companion, especially since the books I am reading (currently, the Game of Thrones series) are on there, so I had the iPad with me a lot - even on the beach.  It was very easy to check if I had emails, to check out my Facebook or to send a Twitter or two.  Long story short, I failed miserably at the disconnecting aspect. View from chair and under canopy! Which brings me back to the question of does social media impact p...

Lecture, Direct-Instruction or Talk - There's the Confusion!

In yesterday's weekly #edchat Twitter collaboration the discussion focused on the flipped classroom, where, naturally, there was quite a bit of debate around the idea of video lectures. What became apparent was the many different interpretations of the term 'lecture'. This came to the forefront for me when I offered up the idea of TED Talks as one option for learning rather than a teacher's video lecture, and someone said "TED talks are just lectures, so how is that better?" This stumped me as I have never thought of a TED talk as a lecture, which is funny, because now, forced to think about it, I guess they could be construed as lectures, depending on your definition. Which of course has led me to this post!  Obviously, my perception of a lecture is not the same as others. What is MY definition of a lecture? Perhaps it's my many years of being both a student and a teacher, but for me a 'lecture' has rather negative connotations, as I envisio...