WebQuest Progress

After considering and rejecting a number of different ideas, I decided to have students play a game as part of my WebQuest.  Since probability is used in game playing, I thought this would be an appropriate use of the probability rules.  I'm hoping students will be motivated to try and figure out how the rules can help them win.  I chose the game show Deal or No Deal. I found a number of different simulations of the game online and am having trouble deciding which is best.  Currently I have included  3 on the WebQuest because they each have certain advantages  In one of the games the offers are unreasonably low, but the graphics make it easier to record the results.  I Can't quite find the right combination.

The primary thing remaining to do is to finish the worksheet and play with the appearance. I want to ask the right questions on the worksheet to help students learn to apply the probability rules to the Deal or No Deal game.  Students need to grasp the concept that it is not likely that they selected the million dollar case and they should make the best deal they can based on which cases are eliminated. I also want students to  understand the effect the high dollar cases have on the expected value of the game and incorporate that into their decision making strategy. While luck is a big part of this game, I want students to learn to recognize when the probabilities are against them.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to create a simulation of this game to test their strategies over a large number of trials.

I found QuestGarden to be fairly easy to work with.  It is a bit difficult to type into the program directly, pasting information works well. It was easier to link to a video than to have the video visible on the page. I think that there should be more of a focus on the quality of the lesson than on the presentation, but perhaps that is too difficult to evaluate in the classroom.  While I have no problem allowing others to use my work, I really don't like the idea of publishing a WebQuest before it has been tested in the classroom.  Of course, maybe someone will like the idea and create a similar project for their classroom. This has been a useful exercise and I think I might want to use this technology in the classroom.  However, I don't think I have come up with the ideal application of the technology for the classroom.  Also, I elected not to turn this into a group project which I might reconsider after trying it out in the classroom.  

Digital Natives

My initial impression of these articles is that the author overstates his case.  He comes across as an educational games salesperson who is engaging in hard sell tactics to line his own pockets.  He speaks of Digital Natives as if they are a different species.  I am a new teacher so I can't really speak to whether students have changed.  However, I don't see much change in my nieces and nephews.  They are very similar to how I was at their age.   These articles seem directed at convincing older teachers to embrace technology.  While I believe that there are many good reasons to incorporate technology into the classroom, I didn't find the author's pseudo science approach particularly convincing.  Instead, I found it rather insulting to teachers which is counterproductive.

The part of the articles that I do agree with is utilizing technology in education.  I think games can be excellent learning tools.  Of course they have to be well designed and teachers have to evaluate their effectiveness.  With math instruction, I think computers and calculators help students learn more.  I agree with the author's statement that "[p]ractice - time spent on learning- works.  Kids don't like to practice.  Games capture their attention and make it happen."

The part of the article that I am most skeptical about is the theory that the brains of Digital Natives are significantly different.  While some kids today do spend more time watching television and playing video games,  many kids today also spend significant amounts of time on other activities and sports.  I don't believe that Digital Natives are better at multitasking and recent studies have called those assumptions into question.  How many lives will be destroyed because Digital Natives think they can text and drive.  Also, I disagree with the author's notion of "Legacy" and "Future Content."

Copyright

I got 76% on the quiz.  There were a few surprises.  The biggest surprise is that the State of California has not consented to be sued for copyright violations.  That is an unusual ruling.  Another surprise was that musicals expect elementary schools to get performance licenses.  I would think kids singing songs at school would be fair use.  I'd like to see the court case that holds otherwise.

WebQuest Project

I would like to create a webquest project for a probability and statistics class.  The webquest will focus on understanding and computing probabilities.

The key content standards covered will be:

 1.0 Students know the definition of the notion of independent events and can use the rules for addition, multiplication, and complementation to solve for probabilities of particular events in finite sample spaces; and

3.0   Students demonstrate an understanding of the notion of discrete random variables by using them to solve for the probabilities of outcomes, such as the probability of the occurrence of five heads in 14 coin tosses.

 The key technology standard will be:

 4. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving & Decision-Making- Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.  c. collect and analyze data to identify solutions and/or make informed decisions. 

The final product that the students will  create will be a presentation of a probability problem that they have created or identified  that they will demonstrate the solution utilizing the concepts learned in the webquest. 

Scoring PowerPoints

I think this is a very good article discussing some of the pitfalls of PowerPoint presentations and how to focus students on the most important aspects.  I particularly liked the author's emphasis on the importance of the ideas and logic in the presentation.  What I like to call "substance over form".  While the best presentations have both, if you don't have good substance, the presentation is not worth viewing in my opinion. 

Explaining to students that  80% of their time should be spent on research and thinking and  20% of their time spent on the presentation will help students better understand the goal of the assignment    I agree with the author that there would be great benefit in having students prepare research papers in addition to their presentations, so that they focus on the ideas and not just the presentation.  The author makes an excellent point about how the PowerPoint software "can subtly channel teams toward compression and oversimplification."

The delivery part of the presentation is also important.  The author's focus on maintaining eye contact, avoid reading slides aloud, and speaking with conviction are all excellent suggestions for students. 

Finally, the author's suggestion to offer exemplars to students is very important.  I am the type of student who always wants an example.  The more the better.  If an instructor takes the time to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the examples it is even more valuable in understanding the goal of the assignment.  I prefer to learn from other student's mistakes rather than my own. 

There wasn't anything that I really disagreed with in the article.  However, the extent to which you could incorporate all of the suggestions of this author will depend on the level of your students.

Something unique that happened to me or that I do.

Unique is a word that is difficult for me.  Not sure I believe any experience is really unique or perhaps all experiences are unique.  However, there are certain experiences in my life that most people have not shared.  Some good, some bad.  

One of the fun experiences is when I had a friend working for the President and he invited me to a White House Christmas party where I was able to shake hands with the President.  That was cool.

When I was fifteen, my father went on a business trip and disappeared in a helicopter.  They never found the helicopter or my father.  As I prepare to teach high school I seem to reflect a lot on my own high school experiences and that was a big one.

Who I am when I am out and about?

I am who I am.  I am the same person when I am out and about as when I am at home or at school.  I've been so busy lately that there doesn't seem to be any free time to spend out.  I'm luck if I can find time to go to a movie or dinner as I am spending all my time working.