![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Conference
Oct. 3rd, 2008 10:00 pmThe reason we went to Oklahoma was so I could attend a 2.5-day conference for math teachers. I learned a few interesting things. For example, one presenter said it's better to have the students struggle with a problem first so they will hear your lecture better than it is for them to listen to a lecture first and then struggle with problems.
I also learned that there are now some educational math games that don't totally suck. When I was a teacher's aid in 1985, one of my job duties was to review some educational math games that one of the teachers had collected. They all sucked. None of them taught any math, and math had nothing to do with the goals of the games. Basically, you had to answer some math questions right to be allowed to play the next part of the game. Once you got past the math problems, some of the games were interesting, but some weren't.
The games I saw in a presentation still didn't teach math, but knowing math was directly relevant to the game. Imagine, for example, a bingo type of game. Now imagine that instead of some guy reading off a number and a letter, you get two dice. You can add the two numbers, subtract one from the other, make one an exponent of the other, multiply them, etc., to get lots of possible answers. Then use whichever answer gets you the best spot on your card. Knowing (and doing) more math improves your odds. And each game is played by two teams of two, taking turns, so that there is discussion going on across the table and thus the possibility of additional learning. Not bad.
Of course I also saw some things that made me cringe. There's an entrepreneurial game where it seems like people learn all kinds of cool stuff by simulating running an actual business. Unfortunately, the business is making and selling friendship bracelets. Friendship bracelets are not for selling! They are for giving! Missing the whole point of friendship bracelets.
I won't even talk about the cringeworthy (lack of) math skills that popped up here and there.
I also learned that there are now some educational math games that don't totally suck. When I was a teacher's aid in 1985, one of my job duties was to review some educational math games that one of the teachers had collected. They all sucked. None of them taught any math, and math had nothing to do with the goals of the games. Basically, you had to answer some math questions right to be allowed to play the next part of the game. Once you got past the math problems, some of the games were interesting, but some weren't.
The games I saw in a presentation still didn't teach math, but knowing math was directly relevant to the game. Imagine, for example, a bingo type of game. Now imagine that instead of some guy reading off a number and a letter, you get two dice. You can add the two numbers, subtract one from the other, make one an exponent of the other, multiply them, etc., to get lots of possible answers. Then use whichever answer gets you the best spot on your card. Knowing (and doing) more math improves your odds. And each game is played by two teams of two, taking turns, so that there is discussion going on across the table and thus the possibility of additional learning. Not bad.
Of course I also saw some things that made me cringe. There's an entrepreneurial game where it seems like people learn all kinds of cool stuff by simulating running an actual business. Unfortunately, the business is making and selling friendship bracelets. Friendship bracelets are not for selling! They are for giving! Missing the whole point of friendship bracelets.
I won't even talk about the cringeworthy (lack of) math skills that popped up here and there.