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A date for your diaries. The annual conference, MSSTL10, will take place in IT Carlow on Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th of May 2010.
The theme of the conference this year is Assessment for Learning in Mathematics and Statistics.
CALL FOR PAPERS:
By March 25th, email a short abstract (200 words maximum) to MSSTL10@itcarlow.ie.
The aims of the conference include:
- providing a forum for practitioners in maths and statistics education to share their ideas in teaching maths and stats as a service subject to various disciplines.
- enabling colleagues to share their experiences, successes and failures in dealing with the myriad of difficulties faced by all who teach mathematics to students with varied mathematical backgrounds.
- presenting new initiatives in teaching and learning.
- giving updates on new developments in the various sectors.
For further details and to keep yourself abreast of the developing programme please check out the conference website at : http://elearn.itcarlow.ie/MSSTL10.htm
Organising Committee:
Dr. Diarmuid Ó Sé diarmuid.ose@itcarlow.ie
Damien Raftery damien.raftery@itcarlow.ie
Conference Email MSSTL10@itcarlow.ie
March 16th, 2010
From Yvonne Diggins at the NDLR
Dear all,
Firstly, we would like to thank you for your continued support and patience throughout the development of a new and more functional NDLR repository.
We are proud to say that the new NDLR Repository is now ready and awaiting the upload of your resources!
You can access and begin the upload of your resources from the following link: https://dspace.ndlr.ie/jspui/
To log in, please follow these steps:
1. Click on the “Login” link to the top right of the page
2. Click on the “Enter NDLR Username & Password” link
3. Click on the “New user? Click here to register” link & follow the instructions
To view interactive videos on uploading & searching the repository, please click on the following two links:
- http://www.ndlr.ie/docs/support/ndlr-search.swf
- http://www.ndlr.ie/docs/support/ndlr-upload-file_demo.swf
We are aiming to have 50 resources uploaded on to the new NDLR Repository by each institution/CoP before the NDLR Event on the 14th April.
If you have any questions, please email the NDLR helpdesk at: helpdesk@ndlr.ie
Best Wishes,
Yvonne
NDLR Helpdesk–
National Digital Learning Repository Project
Email: helpdesk@ndlr.ie – Web: http://www.ndlr.ie/
March 16th, 2010
4th Irish Workshop on Maths Learning and Support Centres – Call for Abstracts
Dear colleagues,
The School of Mathematical Sciences in DCU in conjunction with the Irish Maths Support Network will host the 4th Irish Workshop on Maths Learning and Support Centres on Friday 4th December, 2009. This will be a day-long workshop, with exact times to be confirmed shortly.
The theme of the conference will be “The Use of Technology in Mathematics Support”. Dr. Martin Greenhow
(<http://people.brunel.ac.uk/~mastmmg/>) has agreed to give the keynote address, based on Computer-Aided Assessment for Learning of Elementary Mathematics. An abstract will be available shortly.
In addition, we will have a series of shorter talks (30 minutes in
length) and are inviting speakers to submit abstracts before Friday, 20th November.
There is no registration fee and lunch will be provided. We request that people who plan to attend the conference let us know by Friday, 27th November at the latest by mailing eabhnat.nifhloinn@dcu.ie with your name and affiliation, to allow for planning of refreshments etc.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Best wishes,
Eabhnat Ní Fhloinn
November 11th, 2009
If you don’t have the budget to buy a tablet pc a graphics pad is the next best thing. The above A4 digital notepad is on sale in ALDI this week for €69.99 (£50 in Newry!). This is the best value A4 pen input device you can get for a PC. This device actually allows you to write and draw on paper in ink while also getting a digital copy on your PC. A nice feature of this is that you can use this away from your computer, say at a meeting/conference to take notes and then synch them to your computer later.
USB pen input devices with smaller writing pads (such as Bamboo) can be picked up in a PC store for between about €50 and €80. The main difference between the two prices of the introductory level Bamboo pads to me is the bundled software, as the more expensive comes with a program to allow writing in MS Office.
Anyone who I have talked to who haved used both an external pad and a full tablet laptop prefer the latter (they are expensive). The smaller pad-type pen map the movements of your hand onto the larger screen of your computer (i.e. it amplifies your hand movements as you use the device). This takes a bit of getting used to and will never be as fluid as writing the strokes the same size that they will be rendered. It is probabaly a lot easier with the A4 sized pad for this reason. There is a product out there called laptop pen that maps your pen directly onto the screen allowing you to simulate a tablet laptop.
Of course if you are flush you can always invest in a tablet laptop. Be sure to get one with a keyboard (some don’t have them). I recommend the Lenovo X series Thinkpads.
SOFTWARE: GENERAL
Once you have your pen up and running you need some software to capture pen strokes, annotate documents etc. Most of the pens come with software bundled.
For free you can use MS Paint for very basic drawing. There is also a very nice hidden feature in MS Powerpoint: Create a blank slide >> Run the presentation >> right click on the slide during the presentation >> Select Pointer Options >> Pen. This allows you to write away on the screen. There are countless ways you could use this.
There are other applications that allow more detailed writing options e.g. differennt colour pens, eraser etc. Microsoft OneNote is a good low price range tool for general drawing with a pen. It has a nice screen grab feature to allow you to insert images from say a PDF file and then write over them.
You can also record lectures, talks, tutorials etc or create custom designed intstructional content (this generally gives better results than recording live talks. The best softare for this IMHO is Camtasia Studio which hits the sweet spot between cost, comlexity, and power.
SOFTWARE: ANNOTATING WORD AND PDF
At the moment I am very intersted in annoatating word and PDF documents using a pen. This year in DCU’s BSc in IT by distance students will be submitting assignments through the VLE Moodle. Tutors will download the assignment, correct it by annotating with a digital pen and then re-upload the feedback document to Moodle for the student.
There are several ways this can be done that vary on cost, complexity and annotation features. One of the simplest options is for students to submit in Word (or RTF) format. The tutor then annotates this document via some software that allows them to write in a transparent layer on top of the document.
If you have a tablet laptop (i.e. a laptop with a touchscreen that you can draw/write directly on) this annotation functionality will be automaticallly turned on in your version of MS Word. If you have an external usb-type pen/pad you need dedicated software. Its really a pity MS don’t turn on this feature in Word unless you have a proper tablet PC 
JustWrite is the software that comes with the Bamboo tablet and you can buy this seperately. I’ve found it works fine. A cheaper alternative is Word Annotator, which at $20 is great value, and I’ve had no problems with it though a colleague said it crashed on him.
I’ve experimented with using the drawing tools in Word to annoate documents and it works reasonably well but is not as fluid as the dedicated annoation software.
There are also lots of tools for annotating PDF documents and this gives good results. Adobe PDF professional is the king of the heap but expernsive. Jarnal is an open source version. PDF annotator is cheap but and workable. Blue Beam is also dear enough but by all reports is good software.
Have you used any of these? Or similar? If so please let me know eamon.costello AT dcu.ie (apologies the comment feature of this blog is currently down).
- Eamon (Thanks to my colleague Adrian Redmond for input into this).
December 3rd, 2008
The 3rd Irish Conference on Mathematics Service Teaching will take place on Monday the 26th and Tuesday the 27th of May in Waterford Institute of Technology.
The keynote lectures will be presented by
Prof. Tony Croft (Loughborough University, UK) – Holistic Mathematics Support – rationale, vision, reality and efficacy
Dr. Neil Challis (Sheffield Hallam University, UK) – Enthusing and Motivating for Mathematics Through Technology
Mr. Bill Lynch – National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) – Project Maths
Online registration is now open at www.wit.ie/mathsconference08. The deadline for registration is Monday the 19th May.
The conference fee is €20 which is payable on arrival. However, those who wish to attend the conference dinner should send a cheque, made payable to WIT Maths Conference, for €55 (€20 for registration and €35 for the dinner) to
WIT Maths Conference,
c/o Ms. Fiona Power,
School of Science Office,
Waterford Institute of Technology,
Cork Road,
Waterford.
The conference is kindly supported by the National Digital Learning Repository (NDLR) and by the Irish Mathematical Society (IMS).
May 7th, 2008
The Computer Science Community of Practice with the Mathematics and Statistics Service Teaching in Higher Education Community of Practice would like to invite you all to the following workshop on the 30th April. For more information or to register for this free event please contact aisling.dundon@ul.ie.
Advanced Learning and Adaptive Problem Solving Techniques: Practical Lessons from Cognitive Science
Dr. David Delany, School of Mathematics (TCD).30th April 10am -4pm in B1005, University of Limerick
Facilitator: Dr. David Delany, Mathematical Neuroscience Group, School of Mathematics
This practical workshop will focus on advanced deep learning and adaptive problem solving techniques based on research in cognitive science into the development of superior mental performance. Particular attention will be paid to the application of these techniques to improving both research and teaching skills. These techniques will be introduced within the context of creating an ongoing Reflective Teaching and Research Portfolio for Professional Development.Dr. Delany recently successfully taught a variant of this course to staff and postgrads of Cornell University NY ( http://www.trii.org/courses/act.html ) as an invited lecturer. Eminent attendees of this popular course included Prof. Bernice Bernstein (an award-winning neurobiologist and the first women president of the prestigious Society for Neuroscience) and a range of doctors and professors from several faculties. Dr Delany has been invited back to Cornell to run the course again.Derived from findings in cognitive psychology the course principles and techniques are designed to improve the meaningful learning, creative thinking and deep insight skills of researchers in both the sciences and the humanities.
March 31st, 2008
A big thanks to everyone who attended the Camtasia showcase and workshop in DCU on Feb 8th which was co-hosted by DCU Learning Innovation Unit and the Mathematics and Statistics Service Teaching CoP.
The notes for the workshop are now available in the repository as are the slides of my part of the presentation.
When you get started here are some tips for getting the most out of Camtasia Studio for productive screencasters
February 14th, 2008
There will be a day in DCU on creating video with Camtasia on February 8th. This event is co-hosted by the NDLR Mathematics and Statistics Service Teaching Community of Practice and the DCU Learning Innovation Unit.
Camtasia Studio is software that allows audio and video to be captured from a PC screen. It can be used for demonstrations of how to use software such as Excel or to demonstrate mathematical concepts using a computer pen (e.g. with a tablet laptop).
Below is the outline so far for this event:
Location: DCU Learning Innovation Unit, room VBG11
Date: February 8th
Timetable:
11.30 – 12.00: Overview of Camtasia
12.00 12.45: Showcase of Camtasia projects in DCU
12.45 – 2:00: Lunch
2.00 – 3:00: Hands on workshop 1
3:15 – 4:15: Hands on workshop 2
There will be a limited number of places for the afternoon workshops.
If you would like to attend please email eamon.costello@dcu.ie
January 24th, 2008
Upcoming workshops:
- Tallaght IT (15th Jan 08) followed by launch & reception
- Limerick University Maths Dept (18th Jan 08) co-hosted by the Shannon Consortium.
Paul Robinson will deliver these workshops
Aim: The main aim of the workshop is that each participant would leave with the knowledge of how to create an animation using excel charting and some simple Visual Basic. Each participant would create an animation for themselves and all participants would get a copy of all animations made.
A secondary aim would be that participants would see how to access and download learning objects from the NDLR. One of the created excel animation learning objects would also be uploaded to the NDLR at the end of the session with its surrounding metadata.
- 10am-11am Registration, coffee, post Christmas Danish Pastry to take away that empty feeling inside
- 11am morning start
- 30 minute session on accessing and downloading from the NDLR Break
- 60 to 90 minute session going through the steps of creating a simple Excel animation
- Lunch
- 2 hour lab session adapting the pre-lunch example (which does not require any further VBA changes) or a variety of other existing examples to create a new example. Ideally, participants would also create a problem sheet to go with their learning object.
- Break
- 30 minute session on metadata description for one of the learning objects and upload to the NDLR.
- Finish at 4.30pm
Outcomes:
- Access to NDLR, upload process to NDLR.
- Learn how to create a simple Excel animation
If you would like to go to one or other of these free events, please contact Paul Robinson.
The official launch will follow after the Tallaght Workshop and we would love to see you there. Wine and nibbles will be provided.
Several more more workshops are to be run. These will have the same structure:
- Intro to the NDLR
- Make a learning object
- Upload to the NDLR
If you would like to present a workshop, or simply host one, please contact Paul Robinson (Paul.Robinson@ittdublin.ie). If you don’t have an NDLR login or can’t remember it, please contact either Eamon Costello (eamon.costello@dcu.ie) or (Paul.Robinson@ittdublin.ie)
December 12th, 2007
Mathematics and Statistics Service Teaching![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3411263c-f119-41a4-8783-ca44378f0b3d)
