Whereas, our admins got a bunch of funds because, you know, Pandemic. Priority to reach those "underserved" folks (I forget what language they used). They got some things going but didn't get a lot of participation, so ... oh, my Center for Academic Success has been "sunsetted" [don't ask], so I'm up in the "Learning Commons" (a.k.a. Library, don't ask). Welp, the new Associate Dean In Charge of Learning Commons Stuff (lots and lots of people's jobs suddenly shifted, don't ask) got ideas from us and...
TL:DR; I'm teaming up with a math teacher to create an online module to build essential number sense for adult learners. We'll play around with the name (I already am thinking "call it computational thinking instead of number sense"). My role is officially peripheral, but I'm hoping that unlike past efforts we'll get to a "deliverable." Also, the math person shares the focus *not* on "passing a skills test with these standards" but allowing a student to walk into a math course understanding quantities and basic operations. My thinking has always been that almost nobody has any idea what this means (so we may pitch it to students as "so you can do better on placement tests").
So! Math person is going to look over notes and identify "here's where things break down" in our lowest level course. She is very much into consistent visual design that is consistent with the future course notes. Then we'll figure out lessons. Videos with embedded questions -- and then careful, gradual scaffolding so they don't go to the "okay, copy what they said but don't think about it" strategy that can work so well until it doesn't. My job is to of course throw in my visual ideas ... and to figure out which Cool Tech in our LMS will work.
I fully intend to share as I go of course!
Comments
Hello, Susan and others,
I'm Maggie, (maggib33@yahoo.com) a hesitant grad student having taken a course in instructional design at Penn State, (and had to stop taking courses for right now), but very interested in actual course design. Is there any way I can be some part of this writing of a math module? Currently fulltime instructor in Adult Ed at York-CUNY but looking for new roles in/around the field. 14 years teaching math and other topics. Occasional PD facilitator, ANN member, CAMI participant...
I will do some figuring out how to share files, etc. (D'oh, I have a website ;)) The math faculty person who's technically totally in charge has just started teaching classes ... so plans to look at things on Wednesday.
There's also a group that got together online last Monday talking about creating a course for using assistive technology at basically our adults' level ("middle school" -- but it seems to basically be a course in figuring otu what technology you can use, and how, to do academic work... including the executive functioning 'how will I organize this???" parts).
So, some of y'all know there has been some noxious stuff happening in my job world, but this semester has some real bright spots :)
Hi Susan,
I hope you'll post more about this, I'm especially curious about what you and your colleagues identified as "where things breakdown" or what will be most useful to students to help them have success in the lowest level course and future college courses.
Thanks for sharing what you are doing.
Abby
Students will do division on the calculator and to them, it's a bunch of digits and there's a dot in there somewhere because it didn't come out evenly.
Understanding "borrowing..."
multiplicative thinking...
Today had another chat w/ the teacher -- who looked over her notes from what she teaches (which tells me she wants to build this, not adapt what we already had)... and saw the assorted "review of the basics" worksheets and said "this isn't going to work for our people!" and we talked about visuals and interactive videos where they can watch the video and answer things as they go. So my next step is to figure out a framework -- I was thinking it could be like yaymath.org, which has all the course materials with videos and stories (I haven't dug into it much) -- for a *teacher* to purchase to use. I suspect strongly there's an option for an individual to get the stuff too but I definitely want this to work both ways -- available to an independent learner to "take a course," but also set up in Moodle and our LMS so a teacher could have interactions and discussions and... heaven forfend... grades ;)
CK12.org lets you create custom books. It contains videos, interactives, and modules. I am currently in the middle of creating a book for the Occupational Math class I teach. They have an adult basic education section as well. If you need to know more about CK12 and how it works there is a CK12 Certified Educator Program. It shows how to use the site. What you can do. How it integrates with classroom platforms. Create books (from scratch and editing). Reports you can get on the students. The thing I like best is it is all Open Educational Resources.
I remember CK12 in learning about Open Educational Resources :) I will definitely check it out!
Hi all- I have been teaching numeracy skills for years and love the challenge of the aha for the lowest level students. I have not found one curriculum that works best for all places where the conceptual understanding breaks down, but have a few suggestions. For using online- such as video or virtual/manipulative,1. desmos actually has quite a few teacher made lower level simulations. 2.My favorite math person Jo Boaler from Stanford, has the webpages called youcubed math with many thought provoking and numeracy sense building activities. Lastly, 3. Illustrated Mathematics activities are usually super contextualized and aligned with the NCRC, so easy to find based on standard you are covering. Oh and the Adult Numeracy Network (https://adultnumeracynetwork.org/) is a great platform to see new ideas and share.
Keep us posted on how it is going!
This would be online --- so a lot of the Illustrative Math stuff wouldn't work (I worked for them on adaptations to make for students w/ learning disabilities).
HOWEVER on Monday, I chatted w/ a person at our MLK march and ... it looks like I'll get the chance to spend a few Tuesdays with some young adults in an alternative ed group -- I'm thinking of figuring out some measurement things in real life, then desmos... are there any you can think of from desmos? (The career focus for the group is construction.)