Digital Media

 

3D Images

3D images can be used in many topics in mathematics; from geometry to algebra and especially when working with multivariable calculus. The easiest way to create basic 3d shapes is using online 3d design sites such as TinkerCAD. Other CAD (Computer-aided design) programs can be more advanced such as Blender and Fusion360.

Geogebra is a brilliant online graphing tool which shows 3d graphs easily and allows you to do so much with your graph once you make it. Once you have made your 3d image either on a CAD program or a 3d graphing program, you can (with most programs/sites) export your work into a file format that is readable by someone else with similar programs. Otherwise, screenshots work really well in most cases to demonstrate the basic look of the 3d image. Depending on your use case, you can get away with very simple websites to create, modify and view 3d images or graphs, but there may be a time that you need a more advanced program to create exactly what you are needing or to modify a file that has been downloaded or made by someone else.

Online Interactive Programs

Online interactive sites include any site online that you interact with by changing variables, settings or visuals for either entertainment or learning (or both). When it comes to education, there are many that can be used for biology, physics, health and PE, Music, humanities and many others.

Some of my favourite examples are CellsAlive, in which you dissect a plant or animal cell, seeing every aspect of them, and Wave on a String, in which you create and modify an oscillating wave by the frequency and the amplitude to see how inputs affect outputs in a wave. As these programs are online, they are easy to share, access and play around with, however there may be some programs that could be harder to understand and use, but that is for you to decide based on your technological abilities and those of your students too. 

Videos

There are two major uses when it comes to using videos as digital media in a classroom. 1) The teacher can create videos for the students to use as a learning reference, to look back on and rewatch whenever they are stuck or forgot a concept and 2) for students to make, illustrating their understanding of the content as a multimodal assignment. The creation and distribution tools are usually the same for both use cases, but what is achieved is different and there are a few more technical considerations when students are needing to make their own videos. In this blog, I will focus on the first use case, as for me, this will be used more often than the second use case, as I will have more learning resources, than there will be assignments.

Specifically for mathematics, creating your own videos to give to students as a learning reference can be an easy, effective way to teach students a concept that either isn’t taught that well in their textbook, or the student didn’t understand how it was taught in the textbook. Instead of doing something in front of the classroom on the whiteboard or computer once for them to see, you record yourself doing it, with voice-over commentary and they can view that recording as many times as they need to. 

There are many recording programs for PC, including OBS and Fraps. Windows 10 even has an inbuilt recorder which can be activated by hitting Win+Alt+R. Most laptops have inbuilt microphones and cameras for that area of the video, but external ones can be purchased fairly inexpensively. These recordings, will need very little post editing if the take is done well, but if you do need to edit it slightly, there are a few free editing programs which work very well for this sort of thing, such as Hitfilm Express and iMovie* (*Apple exclusive). These programs can be quite confusing to new users, but there are plenty of tutorial videos online and after a little bit of practice, you will be able to do everything you need to do quite quickly.

SAMR Model integration

Before reading this section, I advise you to read my blog post on SAMR and Bloom’s Taxonomy as I go into much more detail there regarding the SAMR model. Here I will illustrate ways that Digital videos can be used in a math subject under each of these categories.

Substitution - Students are given videos to watch in class while they do their textbook questions to help them remember and rewatch how concepts are done.

Augmentation - Videos are given to students to take home with them for them to watch as homework, with the textbook questions being the work that is done in class, and the learning is being done at home.

Modification - A playlist of videos are made for each class with screenshots of the textbook pages so that each student watches each video to get both their learning content and practice questions in the one video, with multiple videos in one playlist for a term, which allows for easy revision for term exams or assignments.

Refinement - A website is created with each student having their own specific page with embedded videos, textbook pages and learning material that is relevant to them. That way, each student is working to their own pace and at their own grade level - this way a year 8 student, who should be doing year 7 content, will still be doing year 7 content while another year 8 student is doing their year 6 content. This allows for quick, easy and adaptable personalisation within every classroom giving everyone the chance to catch up and speed ahead.

The legal, safe and ethical protocols when your own students are working with digital media.

The major legal issue surrounding digital media is that of copyright and making sure that you and your students are abiding copyright laws when gathering digital media anywhere. There are many ways to ensure that the 3d images and videos that you use are covered by the creative commons copyright law, allowing you to use them in your teaching. Go to the Creative Commons site to see more information and how you can access creative commons work.

Online sites are naturally free to access and use, but you must give credit to the creator and use their site instead of embedding it on your own site (unless, you have permission to do so). The easiest way to get around copyright law is to create your own 3d images and videos which are then under copyright to you.

When using interactive sites, or any site in general, you must ensure that it is safe for consumers and especially safe for children. If there are ads, you must make sure that the ads are harmless and age-appropriate.

For more information on Legal, safe and ethical practices, see the Australian Curriculum: ICT as a General Capability

References:

Blender.org—Home of the Blender project—Free and Open 3D Creation Software. (n.d.). Blender.Org. Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://www.blender.org/

Download HitFilm Express—Free Video Editing Software. (n.d.). FXhome. Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://fxhome.com/product/hitfilm-express

FRAPS show fps, record video game movies, screen capture software. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://fraps.com/

Fusion 360 | Cloud Powered 3D CAD/CAM Software for Product Design. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://www.autodesk.com.au/products/fusion-360/overview

GeoGebra | Free Math Apps—Used by over 100 Million Students & Teachers Worldwide. (n.d.). GeoGebra. Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://www.geogebra.org/

IMovie. (n.d.). Apple (Australia). Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://www.apple.com/au/imovie/

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/information-and-communication-technology-ict-capability/

Interactive Cell Model. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://www.cellsalive.com/cells/cell_model_js.htm

Tinkercad | Create 3D digital designs with online CAD. (n.d.). Tinkercad. Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://www.tinkercad.com/

‪Wave on a String‬ 1.1.22. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2021, from http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/wave-on-a-string/latest/wave-on-a-string_en.html

When we share, everyone wins. (n.d.). Creative Commons. Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://creativecommons.org/