Sandy Jordan recently sent the following note to the technology department:
"Today was my first day with JH math students, and rather than dive right into the boring organizational stuff with the kids, I decided to start off with a discussion about what math is, how it has developed, why it has developed - the more philosophical side of it. In each class, the discussions have been great, but an interesting thing happened last period. This group (Jennifer and Tony's class) all showed up with their iPads. As different questions came up I realized the kids were looking up information to add to the discussion as fast as they could. From "when did zero first appear" to "what were African cultures doing mathematically hundreds of years ago," they were generating and trying to answer questions in an incredibly engaged and active way. It was fabulous. That immediate access to information kept the conversation going, made them more involved in the lesson, and helped them dig deeper faster. They were looking for facts, but that opened the door for ruminations and discussion about the "whys" behind the "whats." It was a great experience for me (and I hope for them!), and really illustrated some of the many, many ways this kind of technology is going to change how we teach."
For assignment #6, we would like you to assign a class researcher each day for a week in at least one of your classes. Let the Daily Researcher(s) use the iPad and be in charge of answering any questions that arise in your class. Write about your experience in your comment.
