Informational Videos

• Use in the classroom:
• Lesson: In Algebra II we spend a lot of time on solving quadratic equations by various methods (graphing, factoring, square roots, completing the square, and the quadratic formula). The content can become dull and repetitive fairly quickly, so showing videos is a great way to keep the students interested and engaged in the topic. WSHS has a math channel on YouTube, and the math teachers have created multiple videos related to various math topics. Their videos are AWESOME! The content is accurate and creatively presented, and I absolutely love showing their videos to my students as part of my lessons. 
• Objective: Students will be able to solve quadratic equations by factoring, completing the square and the quadratic formula after watching a YouTube video that describes each method of solving quadratics.
• As much as I love showing these videos to my students, I understand they take a lot of time and effort to create that a teacher may or may not have to dedicate to their lessons. I can't always create videos, but I appreciate those who can/do. As opposed to creating a full-blown video, I often times make up little songs/rhyme to help my students remember mathematical concepts/processes. I hope (in the future) to offer movie making as an alternative to taking a traditional assessment for my students.
• When assigning a mathematical movie making project to my students, I would have to consider the technology/materials available to them as well as the time it would take to create a quality video. These videos could be produced independently; however, I think it would be easier to assign this as a group project. There are other things to consider when assigning a group project such as their ability to meet outside of class and which students work well (or do not work well) together.

• Application:
• The simple application of videos is showing them in class when they apply to a specific lesson. I personally do this all the time, and I know many teachers who also do the same. They really help present educational content in a creative way, and they help to keep the students engaged in the lesson.  
• If I were to assign a video project to my students, I would encourage them to think about their audience when creating the video. I would remind them that people all of over the world will potentially see this video, and they may or may not be familiar with the content. I would encourage them to create the video with the idea that their "audience" has no idea what they are talking about: "what's the simplest way of explaining the information?" My goal would be that my students present the content/information in a coherent and simple way. I would also remind them that rapid moving images or complicated terminology can be confusing, so simple is better. I absolutely love the idea of my students creating their own math videos because it gives them an opportunity be creative and show what they know. 

• Reflection:
• I wouldn't say my thinking has changed, but this week's assignment has reminded my to provide opportunities for my students to demonstrate their creativity. Math classes tend to be extremely structured, and I need to remember to break the routine sometimes and change things up.
• Having the opportunity to explore various movie making cites was a great resource to keep in mind for future reference. If I plan on assigning video projects in my classes, I'm glad I have resources to offer my students in terms of sites/technology they can use to make their projects.
• I did not notice any tensions between the content and design principles for multimedia. I feel as though tensions exist principles depending on the content, but I also think some principles work better than other depending on the content. I enjoyed this week's assignment because I love showing videos in my classes.

• Your artifacts:
• Evaluation and link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGJrH49Z2ZA

Standard YouTube License

Posted By: WSHSmath

               

                I teach Algebra II (15 to 16 year old high school students), and one of the biggest topics we discuss in our course is solving quadratic equations. There are 5 methods  that one can use to solve quadratic equations (graphing, factoring, square roots, completing the square, and quadratic formula), and this video discusses the three most popular methods: factoring, completing the square, and the quadratic formula. I love that the teachers chose to focus on these three methods because they work for all quadratic functions as opposed to graphing and solving by square roots which only works for special cases of quadratic functions. Our district encourages us (teachers) to find creative ways to present our content, so I enjoy showing math related videos to my students. I personally will be showing this video to my students next week when we learn about completing the square and the quadratic formula, and I showed another video closely related to this one last week about factoring (Teach Me How to Factor).

                The content in this video is 100% appropriate for my content area and student age. The information is accurate, well organized, and presented in an interesting way. I would consider this video to be a credible source because it is created by certified math teachers from a school in Ohio. Although the video creators chose to use a popular rap song to make the video, I do not feel as though it is inappropriate to play in a school setting. In my experience I have found that showing videos in class enhances the lesson and engages the students’ interest because they are familiar with the music. One of the many benefits of YouTube is that it provides videos in a format that can be shown on various mediums. I personally have a smart projector that projects anything that I can pull up on my computer screen, so YouTube videos work perfect for me! As much as I love this video, I would not consider it the best method for learning how to solve quadratic equations; it is a great supplemental tool for a traditional math less, but I think students would require a bit more explanation to fully understand how to solve quadratic equations.  

• Video
• Mathematical video teaching about Exponent Rules

Digital Images, GIFs, and Infographics

• Use in the classroom or learning environment:
• Lesson Outline: I personally had so much fun editing the images this week and creating a GIF. I think my students would love to do similar activities to help improve their math projects, and I also think these types of activities would work well as a review assignment. I love the mathematical music videos available (usually on YouTube), so I think image editing or GIF creating would work well in music video.
• Objective: Students will be able to design/produce a mathematical music video of a topic of their choice. The music video must included examples of images that have been edited, an info-graphic and at least one GIF that could be used to demonstrate a mathematical concept. 
• Access: After creating their mathematical music videos, I would ask the students to upload their final projects to YouTube, and I would post the links on my class website, so that the students have access to each others' video projects. 
• During the creation process, I would provide example of sites/software that may be beneficial during the video production process.
• There will be the case where the students are unable to view the videos; hopefully, the verbal explanation/audio that accompanies the images/video will help those students who have trouble viewing the images.

• Application:
• Prior to beginning the mathematical music video lesson, I would have a conversation with my students about how they learn best, and together as a class we would brainstorm different types of strategies they use to review a topic. We would have a conversation about whether or not these would be good things to consider/include in their projects, and I may even have them read the design principles for instructional multimedia article to support their understanding of the purpose of their music videos.   
• While creating my digital images, I kept spatial contiguity, personalization, and voice in mind. I wanted the artifacts to speak to a variety of people, so I tried to keep them as simple as possible while still being educational.

• Reflection:
• Often times I think of technology as a way to present information or supplement/assist with students' assignments (i.e. calculators), and I forget to think about technology as a way to asses understanding or review content. Since there is so much pressure to address various standards throughout the school you, I forget that I can assign projects that promote creativity while still addressing those standards. 
• In terms of access, I think some districts/teachers take technology for granted. We have become a society that is so heavily dependent on technology that me often times assume that technology is going to be available to us and our students. Just because the school has access to certain types of technology does not mean the students have access to them, and we (teachers) need to be aware of these restrictions when designing lessons/activities. On the other hand, technology also opens many doors to provide assistance to those students who may need a little extra help.
• I love that I now know how easy it is to make a GIF. I think this could be a very useful tool in my class, and I can wait to start using it in my classroom and on my class website! I also enjoyed learning about different photo-editing sites that I can use as alternatives to Photoshop. (As great as Photoshop is, it can be a bit pricey!)

• Your Artifacts:
• Photo collage with edited images -- Geometry 

• GIF -- SPHERE WARS: When you show up to class and find out there is a quiz! 

• Info-Graphic -- STEM Statistics

Solving Quadratic Equations Padlet

Solving Quadratic Equations

• Use in the classroom or educational setting:

• The first chapter we discuss in Algebra II involves quadratic equations and various aspects related to them. I created the padlet shown below with this chapter in mind, and I chose to include resources that could be referenced throughout the chapter. Some of the resources are more educational (serious) while others are to be used as a means to gather my students' attention at some point during the lesson/unit. (I would post this padlet to my class website, so that the students have access to these resources outside of class.)

• Learning objective: Students will be able to solve quadratic equations using one of the five methods explored during the unit. (graphing, factoring, completing the square, quadratic formula, or square roots)

• While presenting the resources included in my padlet, I will also talk about copyright laws with my students. I will ask what they already know about copyright laws, and we will further explore copyright laws together as a class. (I will also keep copyright laws in mind while conducting my lessons and choosing supplemental materials for instruction.) 

• Application:

• The readings from week 1 align with my lesson and padlet in general very nicely.
• I feel as though the padlet technology itself is an excellent multimedia tool for instruction because it allows for the teacher to provide various types of resources that relate to the content material, and it allows students to explore the resources in a creative way (at their leisure). 
• The padlet technology is extremely easy to use and fun to explore, so hopefully it will appeal to a variety of learners and their learning styles/needs.
• While creating my padlet and gathering my resources related to solving quadratic equations, I tried to keep the 12 Research-Based Principles for Designing Multimedia Instruction in mind. 
• Although I intentionally tried to pick resources that were as coherent as possible (and did not include extraneouse material), some of the resources on my padlet are a bit redundant. I think this is sometimes difficult to avoid when working with online resouces because they tend to be as detailed as possible in order to reach as many viewers/learners as possible.
• The resources presented on my padlet can be used as pre-training tools because I could ask my students to explore some of the resources prior to starting the unit in class.
• I feel as though the majority of the resources included on my padlet follow the segment and modality principles because many of them break-down the information into smaller pieces, or they provide videos with spoken words (and printed words) that can be paused/rewatched at the viewers discretion.   

• Reflection

• I really enjoyed creating a padlet this week because I will actually be able to use it in my Algebra II class this year. I've never used padlet before, and I loved how it was an electronic "bulletin board" to gather resources for a particular topic. I can see me using these resources (and padlet) more in my future lessons, and I hope my students will enjoy using it as much as I have. 

• Even after exploring copyright laws, they still make me extremely nervous! I don't feel as though copyright laws have ever been properly explained to me in the past, so the laws tend to get messy and confusing. Since most of what I use is for educational purposes, I feel as though they are fair game, but I understand that this may not always be the case. This padlet activity has helped me to learn more about copyright laws, but I still feel as though I have more to learn about how they work and how to properly cite copyright rights.

Created with Padlet