----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Gerald Smith <mathb...@yahoo.com>
To: "sage-edu@googlegroups.com" <sage-edu@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 1:16 PM
Subject: Fw: [sage-edu] Computer-Based Math Education Summit
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Gerald Smith <mathb...@yahoo.com>
To: "sage-edu@googlegroups.com" <sage-edu@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 1:13 PM
Subject: Fw: [sage-edu] Computer-Based Math Education Summit
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Gerald Smith <mathb...@yahoo.com>
To: "sage-edu@googlegroups.com" <sage-edu@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: [sage-edu] Computer-Based Math Education Summit
I have a school all set up on the virtual world of Second Life wth three
classroom towers, a 120 seat stadium that can be set up with a big media screen
or large open stage, and a large media hemisphere floating in the sky above the
complex. The three classroom towers, stadium and mediasphere are all set up
with their own provate media channels. Every classroom has full access to the
internet, up to and including playing You Tube videos. Multiple internet pages
can be opened up simultaneously. The only restriction on the net is that Second
Life has yet to implement Java applets so those don't work directly in Second
Life. However ,every browser screen in Second Life has a widget that opens up
the current page in your perferred browser (as a seperate window so it can run
along with Second ife) so everybody can still follow items that require Java
applets. For math, I am using GeoGebra for basic levels of math (free and open
source) and Sage Math
for higher level math. I have a Sage Math server set up on RackSapce Cloud
and Sage Math works beautifully in Second Life (but you have tto turn off
secure mode) with the one exception of the help files and JMOL graphics. These
can be accessed though by that trick I mentioned of opening up the current page
being displayed in Second Life in your browser. All it takes is one click.
Animated graphics display fine in Second Life. I use the proprietary
whiteboard. conferencing software Twiddla to provide an efffective working
white board in Second Life with a lot of capabilities. Although, proprietary,
Twiddla offers their "Professional" model free of charge to students and
educators. It is an endearing program and fun to work with. I use it in
conjunction with GeoGebra. Geogebra needs Java applets and does not work
directly in Second Life but it is very easy to transfer Geogebra pages to
Twiddla and display them in Second Life. Once you do so, the
instructor and students can write comments. Twiddla aalso lets people who are
on the web but not in Second Life participate in the class though they do not
get quite the full experience of those who are actually present in the virtual
classroom. There is a large amount of material already preopared for classroom
use at all levels in both Sage Math and Geogebra. There is an enoprmous amount
of material on the web that teachers can use to create High quality multi media
lesson plans The fine instructional videos of the Khan academy web site come
to mind and play very well on any prim with a browser texture in Second Life.
In a virtual classroom, the personal experience is remarkably like the personal
experience in a real life classroom. People are present as their avatars and
sit in assigned seats. Everybody can interact by text chat or voice chat with
the entire group. The teacher can open a private channel to any student and
groups can each
have their own private communication channels. You can set up automatic
translation into a vast assortment of languages of text chat for those students
whose knowledge of English is limited. Individual students can set up
translation individually into their own language. All students in the classroom
can write on the white board as well as the teacher. All instruction and
interaction can be recorded as a text log or as a video file which is stored on
the hard drive of each participants computer. The Build features of Second Life
allow the teacher or the students to create 3 Dimensional models that can be
stored or given away freely. The convenience of online virtual classrooms
means that stufdents can be present from remote locations. including overseas ,
simultaneously in the same classroom. Students who are homebound or in the
custody of the criminal justice system can participate if they have access to
computers. The teacher can hold impromptu
classes at any time with everybody attending in the comfort of their own home.
Yet ewith all the marvelous potentialities of this technology that I have spent
years developing, I have been completely unable to interest any educational
authorities in this. My attempts up to date have failed to get a response of
any kind. Many educational institutions make it remarkably difficult to obtain
access to their educators anyway. I have generated interest and excitement
among educators on Second Life. Linden Labs, the company that runs Secind Life
have offered me their help if I need it. But so far nothing has come of it. My
Second Life contacts have tried introducing me to various educational
instutions with zero result. My attempts to get local educational institutions
and educators have also failed. When I talk to people, it is as if I were
lecturing them in fluent Klingon. They stare goggle-eyed in amazement with
blank looks of complete
incomprehension. i have never succeeded in getting anybody to go onto Second
Life to see it for themselves. They act like fearful Medieval peasants who are
sure that they will lose their souls if they dare to set foot in Fairyland!
The technophobic Luddite reactionary attitudes I encounter amaze me. Everybody
recognises we need to change yet everybody is just terrified of change! All
the current computerized and web based math teaching I have seen so far is just
terrible. Boring, antequated and limited are just the beginning of what I see.
The field is dominated by highly expensive proprietary systems that do a poor
job of presenting out-moded poorly designed math instruction that both teachers
and students just hate. Most would rather have root canals done. The
technology already has tremendous potential that appeaars to be nearly
completely ignored. I guess most of these systems are snow jobs sold by slick
salespeople to techno-naive and
gullible administrators then foisted off on the unfortunate students and
teachers. I fear this London coinference will turn out to be largely an arena
where manufacturers of pedagogical snake oil can ply their trade. I wonder if
anything of genuine worth can be found there?
There is also another huge factor I see. We live in a time of severely
restricted educational budgets. Money is very much a consideration and an
extremely critical one. My technology of virtual instruction is
extraordinarily cost effective and economical. Setting up schools is normally
extremely expensive. Yet my school cost less than $20 U.S. to dset up, that
includes all materials and technology. I spend about $80 a month
to rent the 14,000 sqr meters of lightly wooded grassy hill top land where my
school is located, about $10 a week for the Sage Math server on RackSpace
Cloud, and about $5 a month for the Moodle server I have on Freehostia. The
cost is incredibly minimal for what you are getting! i suspect that is part of
the problem. Our educational system is being handed over wholesale to private
companies whose ONLY true interest is maximizing their profits. No significant
profit can be made out of a system as inexpensive as mine so it is regarded
with hostility and suspicion. Attempts by private institutions to do internet
instruction on their own seem marked by ineptness and futility. My local school
system tries to tutor math online by a system that only amounts to ASCII
graphics on a plain white browser pane. Neither the instructors nor the
students have any desire to utilize it. Eforts at math teaching that I have
seen on Second
Life by virtual extensions of real world educational institutions have
generally been nearly as lame. In fact, math instruction on Second Life has
largely been abandoned as a result of the lack of vision and imagination of
virtual instructional
technologies. I have tried to contact some of these educational institutions
but I have yet to receive any kind of response at all. I feel like the fabled
voice crying in the wilderness!
As things now stand right now, I am offering any instructor who is interested
an individual classroom at my facility in Second Life called the Math Bear
Education Initiative. It is in Dalton on the central part of the old Mainland
overlooking Linden Village where many of the company emplyees have their
in-world offices. Your classroom will be fully furnished and you will be free
to add personal items of your own subject to parcel prim restrictions. I will
give you all help in setting it up and showing you how to use everything. All
of this is offered free of any charge. you can also have a private account on
my Sage Math server. All I request in return is that you document what you are
doing and share it with me. For formal institutional purpoises, I have
SLOODLE set up at my school, This is a specialized Second Life implementation
of MOODLE with all sorts of interesting virtual goodies and technologies . In
the lobby of the second classroom
tower, you can see a wide variety of SLOODLE items already rezzed in. MOODLE
is the free and open source alternative to the aging and expensive proprietary
BLACKBOARD system for managing schools. With SLOODLE, you can for example set
up an enrollment booth in the lobby of the building you are teaching at and set
up a barrier in your classroom that will only allow enrolled students to
enter. It does many other interesting things. I hope somebody out there has
the vision and sense of the future to take an interest in what I am doing!
Sincerely Yours,
Math Bear a.k.a. Gerald Smith
________________________________
From: kcrisman <kcris...@gmail.com>
To: sage-edu@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2012 12:17 PM
Subject: [sage-edu] Computer-Based Math Education Summit
FYI:
http://www.computerbasedmath.org/events/londonsummit2012/
The only sponsor is Wolfram, and his brother (who gave an excellent TED talk
about this a while back) is the founder. But still,
Now in its second year, The Computer-Based Math Education Summit is fast
becoming the hub of a major change in math education.
It will again bring together a broad cross section of leaders with a stake in
math—from industry, technology, government, and education—to answer the
question,"What are the steps to delivering computer-based math education
worldwide?"
so one would think that someone talking about solutions that work in a variety
of economic climates would be relevant :) Last year one of the Geogebra folks
was one of the invited speakers.
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