Bett 2013 – A collection of random thoughts…

2013 saw my first trip to Bett, so I jumped on the train with @carledgar86 and headed down to London armed with a double pack of Lucozade and six Twix caramel slices.

I would like to think that most people attending Bett this year would have been a little disappointed to be greeted by over a dozen companies selling interactive whiteboards – most of which seemed to be almost identical to each other. However, I got the increasing feeling that this was merely the norm. That said, it didn’t appear to stop floods of people from visiting these stands (or indeed the companies from lashing out in excess of £50k to be there for the week). One unnamed interactive whiteboard firm had even managed to differentiate its interactive whiteboard range from the others by lying it on its side and turning it into a table. It goes without saying that they were the most popular.

The same could be said for the plethora of companies selling visualisers, which are apparently still able to supply enough to meet their ever increasing levels of expected demand. At least a bit of healthy competition might help drive the price down a little. The point made by @James_Bowkett leaves little else to be said about the matter.

Any half decent tablet makes Interactive Whiteboards and Visualisers totally obsolete yet they are everywhere at #BETT13

— James Bowkett (@James_Bowkett) February 2, 2013

I would also like to think that most people would have been disappointed to see plenty of VLEs at this year’s event. But let’s face it, no educational technology show would be complete without their fair share of VLEs and bright colours, which irresistibly combine to make them infinitely more attractive to potential customers. I spent a reasonable amount of time playing with the soon-to-be-launched Frog4OS – interested to see if they had been able to design a VLE that is fully compatible with mobile devices (after watching a Frog employee try five times to drag a dashboard widget into place I decided enough was enough). I had one question – ‘will you be able to upload and download all types of files from your iPad into Frog?’. The answer was ‘well, er…the iPad doesn’t have a native file browser so that isn’t possible’. No further questions were asked. I arrived expecting that attempting to integrate a Frog VLE into an iPad 1:1 would be unecessarily difficult, I left knowing that attempting to integrate a Frog VLE into an iPad 1:1 would be unecessarily difficult.

Moan over. There was lots of great stuff – here were my 5 highlights:

Mathspace - I was generously pointed in the direction of Mathspace by @timstirrup, who kindly alerted me to its potential greatness and then even more kindly told me where it was when I couldn’t find it. Billing itself as ‘online maths training like you’ve never seen before’ – Mathspace might just signal a new generation of exciting maths products. Currently only available in Australia and under development for the UK curriculum at the moment, Mathspace is a web based tool or iPad app and there is a free trial available if you can’t wait for it arrive permanently. I haven’t bothered explaining what it actually does, the video below covers that. I just hope they don’t price themselves out of the UK market.

Zondle - I was almost slightly embarrassed to have never come across Zondle before. A games based learning site with versions available for mobile devices, Zondle allows teachers to create and access previously made quizzes on any subject whilst managing the progress of their class. Zondle is different from other games based learning sites in that you can ‘play any quiz, with any game’, cleverly separating them to ensure that a topic is not only associated with a specific game. Most of the content is aimed at younger students (primary or KS3), but you can easily develop your own quizzes in a matter of seconds. Their website also contains the words ‘Zondle is free, and always will be!’

Beluga Maths - Beluga have recently released their Learn Maths with Beluga iPad app, a games based approach to learning mathematics that really aims to develop an understanding of each topic. The content is currently only aimed at younger students, but will soon be extending all the way up to A Level problems, with a HTML5 web-based version on its way soon too. It will be really interesting to see how this one develops. Their website also contains the words ‘free forever, with unlimited updates’. Very nice, although student tracking comes at an additional cost.

Showbie – I have long been a fan of Showbie for iPad workflow, but I became more a fan this week when it became free to all users. It isn’t the finished product, but it definitely offers the easiest workflow for teachers looking to collect, mark and redistribute content created on the iPad.

Hackasaurus - This wasn’t technically a Bett discovery since I came across this following #tmbett2013 courtesy of @mberry, but I can scarcely believe how great it is as an introduction to coding. Hackasaurus is a bookmark that allows you to see and alter the code for any web page – watching the end result change as you remix it. An alternative version of my blog may be on the cards.

DragonBox – ‘The first real Algebra game’

I have been fairly critical in the past of the majority of Maths iPad apps, since very few offer anything other than mind-numbingly repetitive practice of number skills. They are often 21st century versions of worksheets containing 100 questions on that have been known to be used for detentions.

Yesterday I came across an app that is a little bit different. It is called DragonBox, it is available in the Apple and Android stores for £1.99 and it aims to teach you algebra. It arrives in Britain off the back of some impressive success elsewhere in Europe (check out what Wired had to say about it here). After about 24 hours of owning the app, I can honestly say I am seriously impressed.

Here’s the difference between DragonBox and most other Maths apps: you learn concepts by playing it. DragonBox does a great job of introducing equations, the idea of balancing and the role of the equals symbol without explicitly teaching you what you are doing. Our Maths department were instantly impressed, as were the 9 year olds I tested it on yesterday.

The wired article raises some important issues. Whilst DragonBox constantly encourages you to figure out things for yourself, it can result in you knowing how to play the game without knowing why something is true. A blue monster divided by a blue monster equals 1. Is this really a problem? Understanding of the rules can easily be built upon with the necessities of why?

There are also the difficulties of how it could be used in a school setting, citing evidence that teachers ‘didn’t know what to do with this’. Surely developing the understanding of why would be an ideal role the teacher? A few simple substitutions of the blue monster to a number and the question of why is accounted for. I have just signed up to trial their web-based version and cannot wait to give it a go.

It is about time a Maths app like this arrived on the market and I am already looking forward to seeing what they can come up with next, or perhaps more importantly – what they can inspire others to come up with next.

The Paperless Maths iPad Project – Part 1

I have been wanting to turn one of my classes into a paperless experiment for a while. This is partly inspired by the great work of @mathletepearce and his Tap Into Teen Minds iPad 1:1 project, partly by the news that we have hugely overspent our department reprographics budget. Again.

The Setup

The sometimes willing but not particularly able participants – my Year 9 class. As part of our current iPad trial, their classroom happens to contain a set of 16 iPads, a Mac and charging unit. Having chosen my selected apps – which unfortunately all had to be free – Apple Configurator was used on the Mac to sync the apps to the 16 devices.

In order to become paperless, it was essential to find a PDF annotation app that I felt the students would be comfortable with (it also had to export to Dropbox and be free). After a little searching I settled on pdf-notes, which provides most of the functionality of the £6.99 full version, except for a few annoyingly placed adverts.

In order for the students to be able to access the PDF files for annotation, I set up a class Gmail and Dropbox account and shared a folder with my personal Dropbox account. This handy feature means I can put work in the class account by just placing it in the shared folder on my personal account.

For those interested, the slides I used to explain the workflow process to the students are included below. I wasn’t brave enough to rely solely on AirServer to demonstrate the workflow.

#1 Opening work

#2 Using ‘pdf-notes’

#3 Sending work back

The Lessons

The paperless mission began badly. Having failed to properly sync all of the devices, I confidently handed out a set of ‘appless’ (adj. - to have no apps other than those the iPad comes with) devices. Disaster.

On the second attempt, things went so smoothly I left the classroom suffering from mild shock. After considerable instruction, all of my students accessed the class Dropbox account, completed considerably more work than usual using pdf-notes and successfully placed their work back in the shared Dropbox folder for me to assess. Beyond this, their behaviour was unthinkably good and they sensibly completed a Socrative quiz before leaving. One student had their iPad taken off them for taking a photo of someone else, but given the fact that they appeared close to tears I shall not be expecting a similar mistake next time…

Early Conclusions

In terms of the SAMR model of technology evaluation, using the iPad instead of an exercise book provides no functional change; it is substitution plain and simple. However, the learning has clearly been enhanced, as demonstrated by the level of engagement, motivation and achievement. Of course, the iPad offers far greater opportunities for creativity than an overpriced exercise book. Augmentation, modification and redefinition have to be the ultimate aims.

A Maths lesson using only Google Docs…

I am a huge fan of Google Docs. I expend a lot of energy trying to convince other members of staff to utilise its collaborative power in their lessons. The hypocrisy has never been lost on me. I have never used it in a lesson myself. Until today.

As a Maths teacher, I have always been able to convince myself that Google Docs has greater applications in other subjects. Trying to incorporate Google Docs into a relatively inspiring non-spreadsheet-based Maths lesson has always struck me as a little bit of a challenge. You can only imagine my delight then, when I realised that I was scheduled to be teaching ‘Designing an effective questionnaire’ to my Year 7 class. Of all of the topics Maths teachers are forced to teach, this one is pretty much a nailed-on-certainty to provide at least a few calls of ‘what’s this got to do with Maths?’. Ideal.

After a little planning, I decided to give it a go.

Connect

My students had signed up for a Google account prior to the lesson, so I placed a link to a Google Spreadsheet on the class wiki. They were charged with answering the 6 questions next to their names (blanked on the video for obvious reasons). Unsurprisingly, one of them realised that whatever they typed in appears on everybody’s screen and I was promptly faced with a short barrage of hi, hey xx, lol and <3 cells. After the initial excitement subsided, some semi-useful data was collected ready for analysis later, all in only 1 minute. Look out for the confused soul who wrote ‘i dont know’ in the formula bar and other ‘anomalies’. The video was made using Screenr.com to record my laptop screen.

Activate

Students were presented with the timeless ‘Mr Riley’s Questionnaire‘ worksheet. After a short discussion and a couple of examples, the students were given the task of filling in one of the simplest Google Forms ever created, on which they were to explain the problems with each of the questions on the sheet. Of course the results were beamed back to my computer in a handy Google spreadsheet. Google Forms really are a superb tool.

Demonstrate

Now for the creative bit. The students were given ten topics to design questions for using their own Google Forms – which I had to briefly show them how to use. They were under strict instructions to make sure that their resultant spreadsheet was shared with me before starting so I could access their work, which we just about managed. Given the simplicity of Google Forms it wasn’t a surprise to see how quickly they picked it up. To make sure they stayed on task, they were told that their questionnaires would be shared with the whole class at the end. It all worked fairly well, but we were never likely to have enough time to share them at the end.

Consolidate

And so it proved. There was nowhere near enough time left for this part. Ofsted would not have been happy. I was more than content. There were plenty of ideas left in the tank for the consolidate activity, even for another lesson or two. It would have been really nice to have the students test their questionnaires with each other, but that may have to wait. Lots of data had been collected, I had lots of evidence all in one place and the students had encountered something new. I was left contemplating what to do with all the information.

Conclusion

There is a lot of potential for the use of Google Docs within Maths, especially within the topic of data collection, processing and presenting. We didn’t have chance to utilise the data collected at the beginning of the lesson, but a similar data collection session could be used to introduce any data presentation method - frequency tables, bar charts or scatter graphs for example. It undoubtedly requires careful planning in advance but certainly helps introduce a real life element into students’ Maths lessons. Now for completing our Google Apps deployment…

Flipping Homework – An Ideal Revision Tool?

*This post involves nothing by the way of new ideas, I merely put the word ‘flipping’ in the title so more people would read it*

Exam season is approaching. Year 11 are soon to be sitting their GCSE Maths exams, mostly not for the first time. Year 10 are also soon to be sitting their GCSE Maths exams, mainly for the first time (they will doubtless have a few more chances before they finish Year 11). All of this has put more pressure on teachers to begin revision lessons when they still have content to deliver.

This is where I’ve found video content to be a huge help. Each week I make a short video (under 5 mins) explaining how to tackle questions on my chosen revision topic, using the superb Explain Everything app for the iPad. The content is uploaded directly to Youtube so it can be easily embedded in the class wiki. I then distribute a set of revision questions to my students on the topic, tell them to watch the video and wait to collect their work in without even mentioning the topic in class. Here is a little sample of a short ratio video:

The aim of these videos is to create additional time for covering other topics in lessons. I have found it to be an extremely valuable method, especially with my Year 10 classes; weekly homeworks now have a revision focus, leaving lessons as a time for exploring new topics – the way it should be. In this way the main benefits of a ‘flipped classroom’ can be truly felt; it provides students with more time to access a greater amount of material and to a higher level.

The quality of my students’ revision homework has been very high, with some students predictably highlighting the ability to replay video content until they understand it. I am yet to map it to any exam results, but am hopeful even at these early stages. It certainly seems to be beneficial to a real range of ability groups. I have found it incredibly useful for high ability classes as a means to revising easier content they have not covered for a while, whilst it is equally useful with lower ability classes who can often struggle with retaining information and new skills.

I suspect these revision video homeworks would be further enhanced by a platform for student interaction where students are able to assist each other – such as Edmodo – but this isn’t something I have setup for my GCSE classes, yet.

Using Google Docs to track students’ progress (updated)

Most Maths teachers (and many other subject teachers) will have tried to use an exam topic tracker before. Often, these are created using a simple  time-consuming spreadsheet into which the teacher has to manually enter the marks gained – by each student – for each question. This then allows the teacher to analyse the results and target areas of weakness.

This seems to miss the point a little. Our students need to be more independent and responsible than this ‘teacher reliance’. If they are aware of their own weaknesses then they can act responsibly to correct these. Surely students need to have their own version of an exam topic tracker if they are to analyse their results themselves?

Using Google Docs, each student can have a copy of their own  tracker, which they can then share with the class teacher. Upon receiving exam papers back, each student then updates their tracker with the marks they obtained for each question. Depending on the marks obtained, each cell is turned either green, yellow or red. This information can then be used by both the student and the teacher to drive progress (and the teacher hasn’t even had to lift a finger yet – marking aside). Feel free to have a play with the spreadsheet by clicking on the image below.

Utilising videos of exam answers

The updated spreadsheet contains a hyperlinked video solution to each question. I encourage my students to watch the videos to the questions they have got incorrect. I find the videos to be a helpful tool in my students’ assessment of their own knowledge; by watching the short video explanation they can usually gauge their level of understanding of a topic.

Unfortunately, all of the video answers are Youtube clips, which means they are still not accessible within the majority of schools. Until we all have access to YoutubeEDU, this means the videos can only be accessed outside of school by students. Of course this isn’t a problem, since students can access their Google Docs anywhere via any web browser.

Using Google Docs to enter into a dialogue with students about their progress

Getting students to reflect on their learning and target their own areas for improvement can be difficult to achieve. I didn’t want my students taking the time to complete the spreadsheet and watching the videos without any reflection at all. After completing the spreadsheet and watching the videos, I usually get my students to set 3 targets for themselves to work on before their next exam, which can be written on the spreadsheet as a reminder.

Sadly the ‘Comments’ function of Google Spreadsheets are not quite up to the standard of Documents. However, they still provide a nice way of communicating with students. Once the students have used the spreadsheet and completed their targets, the teacher can then right-click on the appropriate cell and choose ‘Insert Comment’. The comments can be used in lots of ways, such as directing students to resources to further their knowledge, or suggesting targets the student may have missed. Comments appear as small orange triangles in the top right hand corner of cells.

Sharing your Google Doc tracker with your students

There are lots of different options for sharing a Google Doc tracker with your students, but here is my method – and you only have to do this once.

• Keep a master copy of the spreadsheet (you can have a copy for yourself by going to ‘File’ >  ’Make a Copy’) and don’t use it for anything, except any necessary updates. You can then use this copy to send any updates to your students’ spreadsheets. I have a master version and also a copied version that I share with students.
• Make sure each of your students is logged in to Google Docs (signing up just a few seconds) and provide them with a link to the copied version of the tracker – via wiki, VLE link, email etc.
• The Google Doc will then open, students click on ‘File’ > ‘Make a Copy’ > Tick the box ‘Also copy document collaborators’ > Rename the file containing the students name/initials.
• The teacher will then automatically have access to each student’s spreadsheet (without even sharing email addresses). I recommend creating a ‘collection’ for each class and moving your classes’ spreadsheets into one collection.

Using a Google Doc tracker with your students over a longer period of time

Of course, you may not want to share a giant spreadsheet with your students containing video answers to every paper they might sit in the next two years. By making another copy of your master version, you can reduce the spreadsheet so it contains only the exam papers relevant to you, and slowly add more papers to your students’ spreadsheets. Here is an example of how:

• As your students sit an exam at the beginning of Year 10, you can go through the process above but share with them only the exam papers they have completed.
• Next time your class complete an exam paper, return to your ‘master version’ and find the exam paper you would now like to share with your students.
• On the sheet you would like your students to now have access to, click on the sheet name at the bottom and click ‘Copy to’.
• Tick the box next to each student’s spreadsheet to add your new sheet to their tracker. You are done!

I recognise this post is almost disturbingly focused on improving students’ exam scores. However, it is also primarily about encouraging students to reflect and take responsibility for their learning. If you would like a copy of the spreadsheet,  use the same ‘Make a copy’ trick mentioned above and give it a go. Thanks to Tim Buckton (@mrbuckton4maths) and Carl Roberts (@carledgar86) for providing some of the videos. If you have any questions or recommendations please leave a comment below or contact me on Twitter (@riley_ed).

Using StudyBlue Flashcards as revision materials

I have been trying to get away from the painful process of handing out flashcards to students this year (yes, I know they should make their own).  In an effort to embrace mobile technology I turned to the flashcard site StudyBlue – after trialling several alternatives. I was impressed with their simple but effective site and the quality of their own iPad, iPhone and Android apps. It took me a while to get going and the site isn’t without its issues, but hidden somewhere beneath is a potential gem of a revision tool – and it’s free.

I began by searching for a collection of Grade C Revision Cards and settled on this TES Maths Resource as it was handily divided up into the different strands of the curriculum. After creating an account and linking it to my school, I made four sets of flashcards in my StudyBlue ‘backpack’ based on the resource above – you will have to create an account to view the flashcards hyperlinked below. Click on ‘Flip Flashcards’ to (hopefully) be impressed.

GCSE Maths Geometry & Measures

GCSE Maths Foundation Number

GCSE Maths Foundation Algebra

GCSE Maths Foundation Statistics

These flashcards are all housed in a ‘GCSE FOUNDATION MATHS’ class I set up, which has a class code that students can use to access the materials when they sign up. Alternatively, you can just search for flashcards by topic or email invites to individuals. The site keeps a track of results, flashcards you are struggling with and will chart your progress.

Which is all good. But the fact that it can be accessed from the large majority of mobile apps including whilst offline, is my favourite part. iPad user? Get the studyblue ipad app, register, search for GCSE Maths and away you go…if you’ve already connected to the class then all of your revision materials will already be there for you.

I will be fine tuning the resources before rolling them out shortly. In the meantime, I’d be very keen to hear what you think. Here is a little guide to using StudyBlue for any interested parties. StudyBlue allows students to create their own flashcards and can also create content based on your Evernote notes, but I haven’t got that far yet…

GCSE Maths Video Answers Collaborative Wiki

I have been dedicating a fair chunk of time recently to the production of GCSE Maths video answers ahead of ‘exam season’. A quick study of Youtube shows that a fair few others have been doing the same (I know this as I spent the time inputting dozens of different searches).

So I have come up with an idea…

I have created a wiki called gcsemathsvideoanswers.wikispaces.com, containing all current GCSE Maths video answers – there is an impressive amount already on there! The wiki is completely public, so it can be edited by anyone who views it (no login required).

The wiki is designed to help solve the problem I describe earlier; to collate all the GCSE Maths video answers in one place and make them instantly accessible. It is also designed to be collaborative and aid the process of video creation.

The site is public so teachers can edit the site for themselves. Anyone can insert hyperlinks to new Youtube playlists of videos, add new pages or fix broken links. To make it truly collaborative, you can even add a note to a page alerting others that you are working on a set of videos in order to avoid any duplication (see my example here).

I am hoping that this will be a useful tool for Maths teachers and would like to introduce a section detailing how to make the videos in the future, for those who may be interested. If you have any ideas of what else could feature on the wiki or how it could be done more effectively please let me know.

The Number Loving Maths Resource Site

It seems that collaboration amongst Maths teachers is increasing at a continually increasing rate…(not possible for ever).

This month has seen the launch of a superb new resources site numberloving.co.uk - a new sister to the equally superb blog numberloving.com. If you are a maths teacher or you occasionally speak to someone who considers themselves to be a maths teacher, I seriously suggest you have a look at this resource site. I challenge you not to be impressed by the quality of resources on offer.

The site contains lots of the resources shared by Laura Rees Hughes (@laurareeshughes) and Sharon Derbyshire (@numberloving) on the TES site.

Here are just a few of my favourite resources shared on the new numberloving site:

1) Describing Transformations Treasure Hunt

I honestly never thought I would see the day that I would arrive early to a lesson to blu-tac a treasure hunt around my classroom. Allowing my Year 8′s to roam my classroom completing this treasure hunt swiftly changed that. They loved it. Since I overcame my fear, I have fallen in love with the selection of treasure hunts on offer here.

2) Simplifying Surds Collect a Joke Display Cards

Possibly the best thing about the resources is how well differentiated they are. This simplifying surds activity is no exception. There is three different levels of difficulty (Green, Amber, Yellow) to ensure every students makes suitable progress. The link only contains the answer sheet, but pupil answer sheets and display cards are also included in case the need to allow your class to roam returns.

3) Inequalities Thoughts and Crosses

This is one of my favourite ideas, as well as being a superb resource. Students use the grid to play regular games of noughts and crosses, except they are only able to claim the squares of the questions they can answer. A superb, simple idea that never fails to get students engaged.

It really is a very high quality selection of resources and the Number Loving team have even more high quality resources to add to the site in the future too!

Maths Exam Video Answers using only an iPad

It has been a mission of mine for a while to create a video selection of past exam answers similar to the brilliant mrbuckton4maths Youtube channel. It has taken me a while to get round to it, but over half term I managed to complete my first exam paper – the Higher Tier Specimen Paper 3 for the new OCR GCSE Maths – J567 (see below). More importantly, this was all done using an iPad, my current favourite app Explain Everything which I have raved about before here and Dropbox, with the exam paper uploaded to it as a pdf. Click on the picture below to access the playlist of videos – I am praying there are no errors in them!

This wasn’t done completely without difficulty.

Question 1 – Demonstrating rotations was pretty hard work. I couldn’t make a triangle any other way than by hand drawing it. As a result it looks a bit scruffy. I would have made the triangle using 3 straight adjoining lines but for some reason the app will not let lines be smaller than a certain size (?!) and even then I couldn’t work out how to join them together as one object. My answer doesn’t really get across the way students should answer the question either.

Question 2 – There were issues here too, but the kind people over at @explainevrythng have assured me they will be fixed in a forthcoming update. There is currently a bug which causes any line you draw during a video to appear ridiculously over-sized during playback. To get round this, I had to draw the line on first and then plot the points on the line afterwards. Hopefully this will all be fixed  soon.

Question 15 (a, b) & (c) - I cheated here. Massively. The question was spread over two pages, requiring you to flip back between pages to answer the question, which you cannot currently do using Explain Everything – at least that I am aware of. So I went for the laptop and chopped up the question into two parts – uploading the resulting file into Dropbox, each part displaying only the information relevant to that question. The result is just about satisfactory.

All in all it was surprisingly straightforward. The rotations would be difficult to display using an IWB and graphics tablet too and the issues with lines should soon be sorted. Questions like number 15 will be difficult to create using an iPad unless you were allowed to build videos across pages; maybe one day. Explain Everything really works well. My only remaining gripe is how long it takes to upload videos to Youtube – on a reasonable home internet connection it can sometimes take a fairly long time.

Please let me know any thoughts on these videos (including any mathematical language errors!)