Greenhaus Education and Other "Effects"

I just got back from Asilomar, in Monterey, CA, where I was attending the CMC North Math conference.  What a beautiful place! Had a really great time talking to teachers about integrating technology into their classroom and ways they could use the technology resources they already had.  An interesting thing happened while exhibiting.  We were using an 'interactive white board' using a Styrofoam white board and eBeam to demonstrate our software ( The Geometer's Sketchpad, TinkerPlots and Fathom ), and so many people immediately assumed that the software only worked with a white board, therefore not of interest to them since they didn't have one. The purpose of using the interactive white board was merely to show the software better and allow others to interact and draw folks in to play.  What was revealed by talking to many of these teachers was really that they assumed that interactive, dynamic software could not be used unless you had a way for students 'tou...

Those of you out there who are doodlers or who are frustrated with students who doodle during class, take heart - doodling is actually a tool for learning so we need to embrace it. This is a very interesting Ted talk by Sunni Brown  about how Doodling is an ally to intellectual thought and should be a part of classrooms, board rooms and war rooms.

(Okay - this is me procrastinating on my research and writing for my doctorate class.....) Let's admit it - most high school/college students have a cell phone and they DON'T put it in their locker during school or leave it in their dorm room.  If my own children are any indication, that cell phone is glued to their body in some way or another so that there can be instant texting at any moment. I myself have become an avid texter in part because I know I will get an immediate response from my daughters. Clearly, cell phones are a problem in school - cheating, inattention - lots of issues.  But I read this article by Audrey Waters  entitled Texting in the Classroom: Not Just a Distraction .  Waters offers some great resources for using cell phones in the classroom as a teaching tool.  There are a couple she lists, but one in particular caught my attention because I know how much 'clicker's' are used in classrooms for polling, review, etc. and I also know how ...