The Apprentice Becomes the Master: Lights, Camera, Solve (for x)!

Primary Presenter: Everett Piper

Co-Presenter: Maung Yi Moon

Organization: University of Colorado Boulder

Role: Lecturer

Track: Presentation

Level: For Mere Mortals

Abstract: A new take on collaborative learning in math classes is explored combining student presentations and video-sharing websites like YouTube. We will present the basic film/internet project we've experimented with in some McNeill math courses and talk about the benefits our students reap as a result.

Bio: Everett Piper has been involved with math instruction at CU for several years now. He has been a lecturer for the Student Academic Success Center for the past two years and prior to that he was an Instructional Assistant for 6 years. In the past two years Piper began to integrate technology, particularly the use of social media, as a resource for my/our math students.

Description: The McNeill Math Program has begun experimenting with a role reversal of sorts. In addition to our group-oriented, interactive lecture styles, we've also invited our students to take part in the teaching process by filming them giving mini-lectures or working out good examples in detail for the benefit of the rest of their classmates. By making these videos available online, our students have access to yet another wonderful resource on the web. Students are already using online resources outside of our math classes. For example, Khan Academy, Purple Math, and YouTube are very popular destinations for students studying for their classes. However, our new resource is homegrown; in contrast to other video sources students can find online, these videos share the voices, faces and personalities of members of their classes. As a result, there is a greater sense of community within the classroom and a common language is used to convey ideas and problem solving techniques. We've also come across a number of surprising windfalls that we'd like to share as a result of our experiment.