Carola Hobohm

Learner-centred mathematics and statistics education using netbook tablet PCs

Tablet technology has been shown to support learner-centred mathematics education when this technology is available to both the lecturer and the students. However, cost is often the barrier to students’ use of tablet PCs for their university studies. This article argues that more affordable netbook PCs with tablet capabilities can be viable alternatives to full-sized tablet PCs to enhance active and collaborative learning in mathematics and statistics. For a whole teaching semester, netbook tablet PCs were given to volunteer students from two different cohorts. Students were enrolled in nursing mathematics or introductory statistics in non-mathematics majors at an Australian university. The aims were to gauge the suitability of this technology and to identify what active and collaborative learning emerged in these first-year classes. While the netbook tablet PCs were actively promoted in their tutorials, of additional interest was students’ use of the technology for any aspect of their studies both inside and outside the classroom. The outcome of this study was to inform a university decision to provide inexpensive tablet technology to larger cohorts of students. The results highlight different approaches required in the mathematics and statistics classes to achieve collaborative and active learning facilitated through the technology. Environmental variables such as the tutor, student, learning space, availability of other technologies and subject content had an impact on the nature of learning. While learner-centred education can be facilitated by inexpensive netbook tablet PCs, we caution that the savings may come at the expense of computing power.

Mathematics Screencasts for Teaching and Learning

During our ongoing research into the use of mathematics screencasts at university, we have seen an increased utilization of mobile technologies both for teaching and learning. The ubiquity of mobile devices has allowed students and lecturers to create, curate and view screencasts far more easily than ever before. Whilst creating screencasts with such ease is deemed beneficial, one needs to caution that the quality of screencasts and inherent accuracy remains central to learning and teaching. As a result, our research has led us to the development of a tool for teachers and students to evaluate their own and others’ screencasts. This chapter describes a case study of the use of mobile devices and screencasting in mathematics teaching, combined with the utilization of the evaluative tool in developing pre-service teachers’ understanding of mathematics and how to teach it. It concludes with future directions in using mobile technologies to assist mathematical understanding and pedagogical content knowledge.

Conceptualising, implementing and evaluating the use of digital technologies to enhance mathematical understanding: reflections on an innovation-development cycle

This chapter first outlines the challenges related to teaching in quantitative disciplines (for example, mathematics, statistics, engineering, science and economics) in on-campus and online environments. It is followed by an analysis of the contribution that our decade of published and unpublished research has made to resolving these challenges. In so doing, we highlight a phased cycle of innovation (that is, conceptualising, implementing, evaluating and reconceptualising), and report the impact of the work on learning and teaching across different environments. Finally, the chapter provides an overview of developments that have worked and that are still successfully used, and others that did not proceed beyond trial status. Unsuccessful trials are rarely reported, but we make an exception here, as they are an integral part of this innovation cycle.

Multimedia Resources in Engineering Education

In this study, the impact of employing multimedia resources in the teaching of a common first year engineering course, Engineering Materials, was investigated. The aim was to determine if there was an improvement in students’ reported understanding and evidence of increased student engagement in the online discussion forums as a result of using the resources. Threshold concepts and the related notion of troublesome knowledge has resurfaced in research as well as in current thinking about learning and teaching in higher education. There is no clear indication in engineering education literature on how multimedia resources could influence student understanding of threshold and complex concepts. The multimedia resources used in the course were developed as part of a framework of resources intended to guide students through identified threshold concepts. Animation software was used, supplemented by video recordings and inked annotations of each lecture. An online survey was conducted over three semesters utilizing an inbuilt facility in the online learning environment. The initial results showed that implementing the multimedia resources significantly improved the student engagement in the online discussion forums? The perceived quality of teaching and students’ understanding of complex topics also improved as was revealed by results and students report. Seventy three per cent of the students stated their preference toward teaching methods using multimedia resources and inking. This preference was more pronounced in the off campus or online student cohort.