Here is some press that covered the award:

• Utah State Today – USU Researchers Awarded Governor’s Medals for Science and Technology
• USU College of Science – Three USU Scientists Receive Governor’s Science Medal
• Salt Lake Tribune – Herbert to honor recipients for contributions to science
• UtahPolicy.com – State Advisory Council For Science And Technology Announces Governor’s Science Medals For 2009

Here are some previous articles about the team as well:

• USU – Developed Virtual Math Tutor Aiding Students Worldwide
• USU – Winter Insights 2006

On a related note, Patricia Moyer-Packenham , the former MEC Director recently accepted a position in the USU College of Education. I’m excited that she will be close by and hope to work with her.

Other times problems occur because we broke something and we didn’t catch it in our testing. This is aggravated by browser incompatibilities. Because old hardware and software tend to hang around schools longer than other places, strange things show up. Right now I’m trying to track down some of those types of issues.

A few years ago when I was more actively developing the NLVM I used to keep old machines around so I could test old browsers. One of the reasons multiple machines were needed was that I couldn’t find an easy way to run multiple versions of Internet Explorer on the same machine. Yesterday I googled to see if there is anything new out there to help with this issue. I was pleasantly surprised to find a utility by tredosoft that allows you to install multiple versions of IE on your PC. Thanks tredosoft! Unfortunately after installing the multiple browsers, I’m still not able to see the reported problem even when running on the same browser.

Summary

• Searching and Publishing – People come to the MTDL to find and share resources
• Overcoming Isolation – People come to the MTDL to help overcome isolation
• Discuss Development – Talk with others about the development of math software

Personas

• Teacher Developer
• Professional Developer
• Educational Researcher
• Inexperienced Developer
• Hobbyist Developer

Metaphor and Principles

• Workshop metaphor
• Design for multiple roles
• Design for multiple levels of expertise
• Provide activity indicators

I like the workshop metaphor, though I think that perhaps there are better. I can’t really discern the implication of designing for different roles and different levels of expertise. I lilke the idea of activity indicators. I realize that this is an area of recent interest throughout the field.

What are your thoughts as a teacher? Which would rather have, a prepared lesson (not a description of a lesson, but the actual materials to use such as black line masters, manipulatives etc), or a catalogue of pieces (e.g. CDs full of clip art, handouts, and worksheets) from which you can assemble lessons?

Does your answer change if we are talking about web based lessons that can be easily adapted?

I think a careful look at how technology could change the role of the teacher would alleviate these fears and in fact excite teachers. I have teachers responsd to Saxon and similar heavily scripted curriculums by saying that it turns them into a robot. Some teachers react to to scripted online instruction in similar ways.

Technology contrasts heavily with this. I believe that a major opportunity that technology offers is to allow us to deliver mastery learning (teach students where they are at and don’t move on until they do) in a way that also encourages understanding as opposed to rote learning of facts and procedures.

My perception is that direct instruction approaches to mastery learning try to narrow the gaps between learners, but often results in rote learning (and higher test scores by the way). Side note: I take it for granted that understanding is much harder to measure than recall and for that reason we assess recall and results based learning (NCLB) values instructional methods that produce it.

I believe technology offers an alternative to trying to homogenizing all learners, it can help teachers manage the logistical chaos of trying to let large numbers of learners go at their own pace. The role change I see of teachers is from dispenser of information to diagnoser of student understanding and customizer of instruction. To me this does not denigrate or demean the teacher, rather it seems to be immensely freeing. It allows you to be a fellow sojourner for understanding. I’d be interested to hear the opinions of lots of teachers on this? I’m sure one reaction, is yeah, that should great but it is pie in the sky.

• User interface design � What are the principles and processes can be followed when designing user interfaces to increase their usability?
• User centered design / action research / design research � What processes can be followed to put developers in contact with users to efficiently gather data to inform their designs?
• Cross platform issues � What are the common problems that developers encounter when trying to develop mathlets for multiple platforms? What are the ways that developers often approach these problems?
• Authoring tools for teachers � What are the functionalities and characteristics of authoring tools that are accessible by teachers?
• Free and open software � What are the different options available for licensing software to and from others? What are the business models that the various licensing support?
• Software reuse � What is out there that can be reused? What do mathlet developers want to be able to reuse? Where can I find software that I can reuse? If I want to provide software that can be reused, what issues should I consider?
• Strengths of instructional software � What are the strengths of instructional software in general and for math specifically that can be taken advantage of? (dynamic representations, linked representations, learner modeling, instructional feedback, problem sequencing, automated testing, collaboration over distances)

• Repetition
• Visualization
• Procedures for generating the answers
• Counting by __ (for multiplication)
• Using reference values

If anyone has other strategies or pointers to online resources that are good examples of these strategies to teach basic math facts, please share.

The most common strategy it seems is recall by drilling and killing like in my boy’s school. One effective way to do this is by using flash cards. The Surfnetkids homework help newsletter lead me to their math facts flashcards page. The problem with most flash cards is that they don’t teach any alternative besides recall. It seems like flash cards could be created that taught alternate strategies.

• ESCOT (dev, JavaDocs)
• Instructional Architect
• CreateStudio
• Create@Brown
• CourseWare
• E-Slate

I welcome pointers to additional projects like these. When I get a chance I will write reviews of each of these projects. I’m hoping to find synergy with projects like these.

If you were given a small amount of resources, what would you do?

Who should be targeted? Those that are flunking out, the average student, the high achiever? What age level?

A number of opinions have been expressed:

• Technology can help, but in itself it is not the solution.
• Integrated curriculum can help motivate students, but in itself it is not the answer.
• Highly structured, programmed instruction is needed to help students gain basic skills, but if it is used in isolation it results in students loosing interest and not learning higher order skills. It should be used in conjunction with other exploratory and discovery methods.
• We need to start early with students. If we wait until middle school or high school it is probably too late. A contrasting opinion is that we can in fact help change the culture of middle school and high school classrooms, which results in improved student perspectives of mathematics (though possibly not improved math scores).
• A professor of secondary ed stated that he thought what made the biggest difference (in student learning and attitude?) is the interaction pattern used by teachers. He deplores the IRE (teacher initiates a question, student responds, and teacher evaluates the students response). He believes that this results in students feeling like everything they say will be evaluated, and so they stop saying anything.
• We need to support individualized instruction (a la Mastery Learning). Teach each student where they are at, and don’t move on until they learn it.
• In order to support individualized instruction, a detailed model of what each student knows should be developed and follow students through their educational career. This model should be used by teachers to help individualize instruction.

To me, the challenge seems to be to develop a model, materials, and support system that teachers will buy into, that allows them to individualize instruction. Does anyone out there have examples of how this has successfully been accomplished? I am also interested to hear opinions on the points I have listed.

I know that well constructed multiple choice questions can do a good job of assessing many things, but my suspicion is that we can do more and differently using mathlets. Anyway, these ideas seem to have a place in what Popham calls work samples and performance-task test items.

Many thanks to my Ph.D. chair David Wiley for getting me started.

My primary interest is in completing my dissertation study titled Design Theory for Authoring Tools that Support Teacher Adaptation of Mathlets (TATSTAM).

While my wider interest is the reuse and adaptation of all kinds of interactive online resources, for the purpose of my study I have narrowed my focus to middle school math teacher reuse of mathlets.

The three areas of investigation of my dissertation study are:

• In what ways do middle school math teachers want to reuse and adapt interactive online resources?
• What barriers do middle school math teachers encounter when trying to reuse and adapt interactive online resources?
• What design guidelines support the development of authoring tools that support teacher reuse and adapt interactive online resources?

As part of the study I’m developing a web-based authoring tool called TADRIOLA. Following a slightly adultrated formative research methodology (Reigeluth & Frick, 1999) TADRIOLA is an instance of the initial version of TATSTAM that I created by synthesizing the literature and personal experience. My main deviance from “orthodox” formative research methodology was to use it to develop software design theory as opposed to instructional design theory.

A simple explanation of what I have done is:

1. Review the literature to identify ways that teacher want to reuse and adapt interactive online learning resources a well as barriers that they encounter.
2. Propose a design theory for authoring tools that support teacher reuse and adaptation of interactive online learning resources (TATSTAM).
3. Design a web-based authoring tool (TADRIOLA) that is an instance of the design theory.
4. Conduct focus groups with middle school math teachers to gain empirical evidence about teacher wants, barriers, and the “goodness” of TADRIOLA and TATSTAM.
5. Analyze data and revise TADRIOLA and TATSTAM based on the analysis of the data.
6. Repeat.

I’ve utilized a case study methodology (Yin, 1984) and analyzed data using qualitative coding methods (Miles & Huberman, 1984).

So far I’ve conducted focus groups with middle school math teachers at 6 different locations. At the first location I worked 1-on-1 with 7 teachers using questionnaires, structured interviews, and user tests. At the other groups I have worked with groups using surveys, questionnaires, group discussions, and user tests. In all I have worked with 59 middle school teachers and some 20 other types including technology specialists and college professors who teach students preparing to be math teachers.

Reigeluth, C.M., & Frick, T.W. (1999). Formative research: A methodology for improving design theories. In C.M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory. (Volume II). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. [PDF]

Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1984). Analyzing qualitative data: A source book for new methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

Yin, R. K. (1984). Case study research design and methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.