Weekly blog from Octber 8th (late)

The most significant thing I learned this week was, through Robin's crash course, how to use Fathom.
Fathom raised two questions for me. First as a future teacher what can Fathom bring to the classroom. Second as a current undergraduate physics student, what can Fathom bring to my experience in Physics.
Fathom clearly offers a synthesis between symbolic representation of data and visual representation of data, and this synthesis seems to offer far more than the parts. We have always had tables and equations, and graphs. It is Fathom's ability to show the connections between both with such flexibility that is so powerful as a classroom tool.
More to the point was the question of whether Fathom could help me in my Physics Class. I got on a computer in the computer lab and Fathom's help includes some quick time video's on basic Fathom use (bring your ear buds(with a long chord)). These were great and had me beyond Robin's tour and building a graph for a lab I was working on. So In relatively short time I had a much better graph than I had been able to make in Excel. Then things stalled out. I was trying to label accuracy on my axes and I was not allowed to use non alpha-numeric characters (+/-).
I could not figure out how to add the and lines and arrows. The biggest problem of course was that my graph was only an image in my Word document that I submitted, there was no interactivity with charts since NSCC does not have Fathom. I think with time I could address these problems, but It must be included with any calculus of the effectiveness of technology: how long does it take to gain proficiency?
With Fathom I think you could set up a template with less that 20 instructions that could have done all I wanted to do. I think that falls on the teacher to do. I think it would be a great way to make graphs for science classes and to illustrate the synthesis I spoke of earlier I think it would be a great classroom tool.

Weekly blog from Ocober 6th

What was the most significant thing you learned in class this week?
The main point that was sent home to me this week was that while technology and the web offer promise of efficiencies and productiveness there is a steep set up curve. I have now been in classes for four school days and it has all been about getting used to new systems. It isn't that all my time is spent on the systems themselves, there has been some content absorbed, but a certain lack of fluency in navigating the systems has made my class and home work a little more hectic.

It is not just that I am an technology immigrant. It turns out that I'm the only student in Physics taking notes on a laptop, and there was student grumbling about the class not being listed as a distance learning class (it isn't). Lots of the younger (native) students were having trouble making sense of the class interface and the separate homework interface. I already am becoming more fluent and my self consciousness of being an immigrant has made me hustle to stay ahead.

Robin's goal of a paperless class is great but not having that several paper syllabus that gets handed out the first day took a little adjustment.I think I am finally getting a grip on all the online components of the Technology class.


What questions do you have and what do you want to learn more about?

I really would like to start to understand how we can critically evaluate technologies and teaching methods. This is what I would like to delve into in this degree. I think that first I have to settle on what we are trying to accomplish in education and when I have a clear sense of that I want to learn how best to address accomplishing this. If Twitter is a great teaching tool I really first need to articulate what teaching is before I can address whether Twitter is an effective tool.

What applications do you see to classroom practice based on what you learned?

With my limited sense of education and pedagogy the single strand that seemed to unite this last week was a germinating sense of community. In every case of the technology curve it was clear there were others on my path and all signs point toward these technologies showing me a little more about the people and subjects in the classes than I would traditionally see. This is no critical evaluation but I sense that this new expanded view can help the classroom.