When children think, respond, discuss, elaborate, write, read, listen, and inquire about mathematical concepts, they reap dual benefits: they communicate to learn mathematics and they learn to communicate mathematically. (NCTM)
In general, I’ve been disappointed with many of the iPad apps categorized under Education. With new apps being added (270/day in June 2011), I’ve got to admit it’s getting better. A little better all the time.
As Orwell Kowalyshyn and/or Kevin Amboe mentioned last spring, apps from other categories such as Games or Photography may provide richer educational opportunities for students.
My daughter (6) is currently enjoying the game Slice It!. The goal is to slice shapes as evenly as possible. The number of slices you are allowed and the number of pieces the shape is to be sliced into is given. The challenges get increasing difficult. I can imagine using this app to explore mathematical concepts such as area, fractions, percents, and line symmetry. Perhaps students could take screenshots and explain their strategies to their classmates. Maybe they could explain how they know the pieces have approximately the same area. (The FAILED text that appears when not sliced into the correct number of pieces may turn off some educators. No noticeable signs of this affecting my daughter, at least so far.)
Students will benefit from iPads in the classroom not because there’s an app for practicing number operations, but because there’s an app for communicating their thinking. ShowMe, ScreenChomp, and Explain Everything have been listed/discussed in many math ed blogs. Students, not their teachers or Sal Khan, can create video explanations using these interactive whiteboard apps.
Meeting with Surrey & Vancouver secondary math teachers this summer, one teacher showed us a picture of two containers each filled with chocolate eggs. The number of eggs in the smaller container was given and we were asked to guess the number of eggs in the larger container (see Dan Meyer’s blog). Using her iPad 2, the teacher filmed us giving and justifying our estimates. In a classroom, teachers or, better yet, students could interview peers, administrators, parents, members of the community, etc. and then share and discuss these guesses and strategies.
One app that I had fun with this summer is iMotion HD. This app allows you to create and share stop motion movies from pictures you have taken. In the video below, I show why 1/2 + 1/3 = 5/6 using pattern blocks.
Using iMovie, I could have added narration but I chose not to. Why? Because I have no plans to share this with students*. I chose not to narrate my movie because students, not the teacher, should be doing the math. In this way, students communicate to learn and learn to communicate.
*Also, I have only one nephew. He is 18 months old and so far has been able to complete his algebra homework without asking his uncle to tutor him. The Khan Academy has already been widely and deservedly criticized by others. Please check out Karim Ani’s An Open Letter to Sal Khan on his Mathalicious blog.
Chris Hunter 