I really must say, today was a wonderfully beneficial day. Tux Math?! How have I not known of this before? Its uses for children learning elementary math are astounding. I was also reminded of the initially linguistically oriented freerice.com by the spectacular Luke Garcia. The sites subject matter, however, has expanded from mere attempts to raise ones vocabulary to attempts to raise ones competence in Math, Geography, Chemistry, Art, and even Languages such as French, German, Italian, and Spanish. All the while assisting those in need with grains of rice for every correct answer. Awesome... Now, the number of open source downloads also astounded me. I never really dug so deep in that territory before. I understand that I need to dedicate a fairly large portion of my time in order to pinpoint downloads that would be most ideal for the teachers. Lastly, the screenshot process was probably the most entertaining portion of the class as I've never actually worked with the tools to do it. I definitely learned that downloadable tutorials will be a marvelous tool to go into the school with as it allows me to free up time by not having to re-teach any specific computer-based task. I do, however, need to find a way to quicken that movie-saving process.....
~Corey
Corey,
ReplyDeleteIt's great to hear that you got so much out of yesterday, and I must say that your reflections are very interesting to read (bonus points for the comic). The possibilities that Open Source offers within a school is really amazing, and I guess you have a lot of space commanding to do to make up for not knowing about Tux Math in the past.
You are definitely right about the potential use of screen capturing. It will save you time and give the teachers a resource they can access even when you're not there. Once our Watchknow page takes off, those videos can then be uploaded and will have the potential to impact teachers across the state and country.
Also, I've found that a nice pat on the monitor and talking nicely to the computer helps with the saving process.