The Mathtrain @ NECC09
Posted by Lois on July 11, 2009
The Mathtrain is Eric Marcos. He is an amazing teacher because he inspires his students to learn and in particular to love maths. My travel buddy, Jenny Ashby and I had the pleasure of meeting him at NECC09 and to hear him present. He was at the Camtasia Studio Booth ( the makers of JING great free screen capture and screen casting toos) showing how his students use screen casting to share their mathematical knowledge.
I first became a fan of Eric after listening to an Ed Tech Crew Podcast where he was interviewed. I have mentioned him in an earlier blog post when I was looking for examples of students articulating their learning. I think this is why I admire Eric so much. I am a strong believer in students using their voice to tell us what they know. I am sure it is one of the crucial steps in constructing knowledge. Using screen casting, as Eric does, not only builds student’s confidence as they tell an audience what they know, but helps them crystallize their learning into solid knowledge.
Eric played a number of examples of the student’s work which can be seen on his Mathtrain.tv site but he talked passionately about the students and their enthusiasm for the process. I know that his students love the screen casting and publishing their work, but would guess that they also love the feeling that comes when they know they have learnt something new. The process that Eric Marcos goes through with his students lets them experience that feeling every time they create that snapshot of their math’s lessons.
- maths has suddenly become much more language focused
- Penelope is now the one in control
- using the screen casting lets Penelope realise her learning it completes a process
- screen casting to an authentic audience makes the learning more “imperative”
Screen casting is not a magic cure. It is clear that Eric Marcos does a lot of Math teaching before the students hit the screen casting stage, but it certainly changes the stakes for the students by giving them the opportunity to articulate their learning to an authentic audience.
