April Events, 2006
Paul Kates, Mathematics Faculty LT3 Liaison
Event Summary
Talks
=====
* New Ideas in Informal Learning Spaces, Friday, March 31.
* MERLOT: Teaching with Technology, Thursday, March 30.
* Adventures in Space Design: Building and Supporting A Collaborative
Computing Lab, Monday, April 10.
* Using UW-ACE to promote student reflection on course content,
Thursday, April 13.
* What I Learned about Learning in a Developing World Practice,
Thursday, April 27.
Courses
=======
* Getting Started with UW-ACE, Wednesday, April 5th.
* Creating Quizzes in UW-ACE, Monday, April 10th.
* UW-ACE Overview, Tuesday, April 11th.
* Introduction to UW-ACE Instructional Resources, Thursday, April 13th.
* Using the Action Editor, Monday, April 17th.
Conferences
===========
* Engaging the 21st Century Student, Friday, April 21, Unversity of Windsor.
* Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, May 2-4, Dalhousie University.
* Maple Conference 2006, July 23-26, Wilfred Laurier University.
* Working with and Learning From the World's Best, August 8-11, Ottawa.
Education Journals Abstracts
============================
* Trial access to Education Journals Abstracts ends April 30.
Talks
MERLOT: Teaching with Technology.
TLT webcast, hosted by LT3, the Centre for Learning and Teaching
through Technology (lt3.uwaterloo.ca).
Thursday, March 30, 2006 12:50-1pm.
FLEX Lab, Dana Porter Library, room 329.
From the TLT site on a related webcast on Merlot:
(http://www.tltgroup.org/Registration/DescriptionPage/MERLOTWebcast.htm)
MERLOT is a free and open resource designed primarily for faculty and
students of higher education. Their website includes links to online
learning material along with annotations such as peer review and
assignments. During this workshop, you will not only become familiar
with this collection of resources, you will also learn how to take full
advantage of the MERLOT.s many features:
* A continually growing catalog of online learning materials, peer
reviews, learning assignments and user comments, organized by
discipline into specific discipline communities and created to help
faculty enhance instruction
* An international consortium of partners and affiliates who
cooperate to continually create, expand, and refine MERLOT in order
to transform and improve higher education.
* A community of individual members, from academia, business, and
professional organizations, who strive to share and enrich their
teaching and learning experiences by contributing to MERLOT.
Contributing and sharing materials and resources is free to MERLOT
members.
* A technology initiative with its own infrastructure and
dynamically designed set of technology tools and software
development policies created to help faculty integrate high-quality
online-instructional-technology resources into their courses
effectively, easily, and enjoyably.
New Ideas in Informal Learning Spaces
Dr. Liwana Bringelson, Director, Centre for Learning and Teaching
Through Technology, and faculty member of Systems Design Engineering.
Friday, March 31, 2006, 11 am-12 pm
FLEX Lab, Dana Porter Library, room 329
Registration: http://lt3.uwaterloo.ca/events/
Where do students learn? How do we support learning outside of the
classrooms at UW? This presentation will explore these ideas as
well as present concepts that students have developed regarding
"informal learning spaces" at UW. Dr. Liwana Bringelson will lead
the presentation and interactive discussion. She believes that one
more way for the University of Waterloo to become a "learning
intensive university" is to seriously consider the learning that
happens in all of our spaces.
Adventures in Space Design: Building and Supporting A Collaborative
Computing Lab.
An ELI Web Seminar presented by Alan Cattier, Director of Academic
Technologies, Emory University and Kim Braxton, Manager, Centers for
Educational Technology, Emory University.
Monday, April 10, 2006, 1:00pm-2:00pm
FLEX Lab, Dana Porter Library room 329.
Registration: http://lt3.uwaterloo.ca/events.
In spring 2001, a project group composed of lab managers, A/V
specialists, interior designers, and architects met to begin planning
Emory's first collaborative computing lab-the Computing Center at
Cox Hall. What followed-making the facility a reality-was a wild
success. Student use has grown from 5,000 users a month to more than
15,000, with both undergraduates and graduate students gravitating to
the new ways of researching, working, and learning together that the
center supports.
This Web Seminar will tell the story of the facility, from design to
production, highlighting essential strategies for building, enabling,
and living with one vision of a next-generation computing center.
Background:
ELI, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, supports new collegiate
learning environments that use IT to improve the quality of
teaching and learning, contain or reduce rising costs, and provide
greater access to higher education.
Site: http://www.educause.edu/eli.
Using UW-ACE to promote student reflection on course content
Presented by Kate Willink and Adrienne Gilbert.
Thursday, April 13, 2006, 10:30am-11:30am
FLEX Lab, Dana Porter Library, room 329.
Registration: http://lt3.uwaterloo.ca/events.
Kate Willink will describe a term-long e-Portfolio project delivered in
UW-ACE which had students reflect regularly on their learning
experiences throughout the term and synthesize these into a single
e-Portfolio submitted at the end of the term.
Adrienne Gilbert will describe an activity she developed in UW-ACE to
help ensure that students were better prepared for class discussions
surrounding assigned readings. Students were asked to submit 2
questions per reading one day prior to each class. Using the Print
Discussion Forum Utility, Adrienne will demonstrate how she was able to
gather the questions and use them to guide the discussions that took
place during the lecture time.
What I Learned about Learning in a Developing World Practice
Presented by Leslie Richards, Senior Advisor, Instructional
Technologies.
Thursday, April 27, 2006, 3:00pm-4:00pm
FLEX Lab, Dana Porter Library, room 329.
Registration: http://lt3.uwaterloo.ca/events.
Thai educators assured Leslie many times that what would work in
North America wouldn't work in Thailand because the students were too
different, based on history and culture. Come and hear what Leslie
learned, and applies now to learning more universally.
Question for participants to think about prior to the presentation:
Cultural and historical factors in South-east Asia higher education
have created an environment that isn't favorable in promoting student
engagement with instructional content, emphasizing prompt feedback
from the instructor. For example, it's customary for students to be
recipients of information (listening to lectures), rather than active
participants in their own learning. What's different at Waterloo?
UW-ACE Courses
* Getting Started with UW-ACE, Wednesday, April 5th.
* Creating Quizzes in UW-ACE, Monday, April 10th.
* UW-ACE Overview, Tuesday, April 11th.
* Introduction to UW-ACE Instructional Resources, Thursday, April 13th.
* Using the Action Editor, Monday, April 17th.
All courses are held from 9:30-11:30 am in MC 1050. See descriptions below.
Registration: https://ist.uwaterloo.ca/course_registration/registration.php
If you would like to book a different time to learn more about
the quiz system, gradebook, teams building and collaboration
or other features please contact Paul Kates pkates@uwaterloo.ca.
Getting Started with UW-ACE:
This is a hands-on session where we will explore some of the more
commonly used UW-ACE functionality, including: creating/uploading a
course syllabus; creating and marking a drop box; creating and using
a discussion forum, using milestones to update calendar items, and
tailoring your course and work environment.
Creating Quizzes in UW-ACE:
A detailed look at quiz creation, multiple choice, true-false, short
answer, essay etc. This session will also cover uploading of
question banks and existing quizzes, as well as how to provide
feedback to students taking the quiz/exam. Adding quiz results to
the Course Gradebook will also be examined.
UW-ACE Overview:
This session will provide a comprehensive overview of UW-ACE aimed at
highlighting most of the features and functionality of ANGEL. A good
place to start for instructors using UW-ACE (ANGEL) for the first
time.
Introduction to UW-ACE Instructional Resources:
The hands-on session is designed to provide an introduction to
"UW-ACE Instructional Resources", a repository of online teaching and
learning resources available to all instructors using UW-ACE in their
courses. It will include an overview of the types of resources in the
repository, as well as a practical "how to" session, demonstrating
how instructors can import items from the repository into their
courses.
Using the Action Editor:
The ANGEL Action Editor is an advanced tool that allows you to define
actions to be taken when certain events and conditions occur. For
example, an action could be defined to allow a student to gain access
to previously locked material (action) after the submission of a quiz
(event), only if their quiz grade is above 80% (condition). This
session will explore a number of common examples which will be worked
through via hands-on activities.
Conferences
Engaging the 21st Century Student, Friday, April 21st, 2006, organized by the Centre for Flexible Learning (University of Windsor) and McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Information and registration: http://www.uwindsor.ca/cfl.
Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Yves Mauffette, University of Quebec (Montreal).
"The Bee And The Ant: A Teacher's Fable".
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, May 2-4, 2006 by Dalhousie University and McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Many good looking presentation topics.
From the web site:
University and college faculty continually enhance the impact of their
teaching on student learning by critically reflecting on student
learning experiences and assessing the extent to which new approaches
to teaching affect specific learning issues. When we share what we
learn about teaching and learning with colleagues, we go beyond the
development of learning in our own courses and contribute to the
scholarship of teaching and learning within and across disciplines.
To celebrate its tenth year of fostering the scholarship of teaching
and learning, the Dalhousie University Conference on Teaching and
Learning is partnering with McGraw-Hill Ryerson to create a national
forum for presenting and developing the scholarship of teaching and
learning in Canadian universities and colleges.
Faculty, academic administrators, and educational developers are
invited to propose sessions that address questions such as:
* How do you conduct the scholarship of teaching and learning in
your discipline?
* How can the scholarship of teaching and learning inform our
teaching practices?
* What are the institutional benefits of the scholarship of
teaching and learning?
* What have you learned about how to design inquiry into student
learning?
* How do you address the ethical considerations that emerge when we
engage in research on student learning in our own classes?
* How can we create scholarly communities in which the scholarship
of teaching and learning is recognized, debated, and valued as a
form of scholarship?
* How can the scholarship of teaching and learning be recognized in
the career advancement of university and college faculty?
Maple Conference 2006 takes place July 23-26 at Wilfred Laurier University. The preliminary call for papers deadline is February 28th, with full paper due March 17th.
Keynote speakers include
Dr. Frangois Cellier, President, Society for Computer Simulation
Dr. Carl Cowan, President, Mathematical Association of America
Dr. Richard Bartels, UW CS professor (now retired),
Renowned authority on Computer Graphics
3rd International Conference on the Teaching of Mathematics will take place in Istanbul, Turkey, June 30-July 5, 2006.
Submission information:
Notification of acceptance of abstracts: By March 15, 2006
Abstracts are between 300 and 500 words, in plain text.
Deadline for full paper submission: April 1, 2006
Paper Review Decisions: May 15, 2006
Conference themes for presentations:
* Educational Research: Results of current (unpublished) research in
mathematics education, and assessment of student learning.
* Technology/ Technology based Educational Systems: Effective integration
of computer technology (Calculators, Computer Algebra Systems,
WWW resources) into the undergraduate curriculum.
* Innovative Teaching Formats: Innovative ways of teaching undergraduate
mathematics courses: cooperative and collaborative teaching and
learning styles.
* Distance Learning: Distance Learning Technologies for teaching and
learning mathematics. Current software/hardware delivery media.
Visions for the future.
* Specific Courses: Reform efforts in specific mathematics courses and
assessment results.
* Other Disciplines: The effects of changes in the teaching of mathematics
courses in other disciplines (needs of client disciplines;
interdisciplinary courses).
Working with and Learning From the World's Best - 6th Annual MERLOT International Conference, August 8-11, 2006, Ottawa Congress Centre, Ottawa. Co-sponsored by CLOE, The Co-operative Learning Object Exchange collaboration between Ontario universities and colleges (http://cloe.on.ca/).
MERLOT is an international cooperative of higher education
institutions and professionals working to amass superior online
resources to improve learning and teaching. At www.merlot.org MERLOT
maintains a digital library of online teaching-learning materials, as
well as myriad learning enhancements to help educators explore online
teaching and learning and bring it to their classrooms in productive
and vibrant ways.
Education Journals Abstracts
The UW library is able to offer trial access to a comprehensive index for international periodicals and yearbooks on education, covering 426 journals, from 1983-present. Access ends April 30, 2006. List of journals indexed: http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com/hww/Journals/
Other science and humanities abstracts are also available for the same limited time.
Maple
An Innovative Approach to Post-Calculus Classical Applied Math
Robert J. Lopez
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (retired), Maplesoft (Note: To
view the paper you may be asked to register at Maplesoft.com. If
you wish, I can send a copy of the paper instead. Please send your
request to pkates@uwaterloo.ca.)
From the introduction of the paper:
Post-calculus classical applied math is scattered through courses
in differential equations, boundary value problems, vector
calculus, matrix algebra, complex variables, and numerical methods.
Most of this material can be found in texts entitled Advanced
Engineering Mathematics. The mathematics in such texts is truly
classical, having been available in its present format for many
years, if not centuries. The apprenticeship for working in the
field of classical applied mathematics is long and arduous because
the apprentice must master material from so many different
disciplines.
Twenty-first century software allows this apprenticeship to be both
shorter and more effective. Modern computer algebra systems can be
the tool of first-recourse for teaching, learning, and doing such
applicable mathematics. Software tools such as Maple, Mathematica,
MuPAD, and Macsyma implement nearly all the manipulations of the
undergraduate program in applied and engineering mathematics. The
time has come to use these twenty-first century tools for teaching
eighteenth and nineteenth century mathematics.
A complete post-calculus applied math curriculum in which a
computer algebra system is the primary working tool appears in [1].
In this text the software is not just an add-on to a traditional
by-hands pedagogy. Instead, the software is used as an active
partner in the student.s participation in applied mathematics.
We give two examples taken from [1], examples that show how use of
a computer algebra system enhances pedagogy. The purpose is not to
tout a particular book, but instead, to call attention to the
concept that a computer algebra system can, and should, be the
working tool for teaching, learning, and doing classical applied
math. So, rather than talk about this approach, we give two
examples and let readers judge for themselves the viability of a
curriculum predicated on the ubiquitous use of modern software
tools.
Maplesoft.com has many online seminars available.
An Introduction to Maple 10 (42 min)
Introduction to the Maplet Builder (7 min)
Advanced Engineering Applications with Maple (50 min)
Clickable Calculus (54 min)
Click Here to Download the Associated Maple Worksheet for
this Seminar
Maple T.A. Demonstration for Instructors (24 min)
Maple T.A. Demonstration for Students (13 min)
Maple T.A. for Blackboard. Software Demo (8 min)
Syntax-Free Computations in Maple 10 (65 min)
Control System Development Using System Identification (43 min)
Technical Solution Deployment Using MapleNet 10 (34 min)
Introduction To Global Optimization Toolbox For Maple (61 min)
Maple in the High School Classroom (10 min)
Modeling Multi-body Mechanical Systems With DynaFlex Pro (65 min)
Implementing Technology in the Modern Math Curriculum (60 min)
Many mathematics lessons are also available using Maple.
Algebra (44) Calculus I (102)
Calculus II (59) Calculus III (23)
Case Studies (4) Complex Analysis (67)
DE's (89) Economics (20)
Elementary School (9) Engineering (68)
Geometry (32) Linear Algebra (22)
Maple TA (5) MapleNet (2)
Maplets (4) Numerical Analysis (15)
Operations Research (1) Physics (88)
Precalculus (42) Quantum Mechanics (19)
Real Analysis (20) Statistics (36)
Trigonometry (4) Vector Calculus (99)
MapleTA is an online assignment and quiz system backed by the Maple
mathematics engine that allows questions to be graded using Maple
to match and evaluate student answers.
Many different question types are available including questions
generated by formula for random assignment to students (students
don't see the same questions, but the form is the same). Questions
can make use of physical units and error bounds. Maple graphs can
be included in questions for display or for interaction with the
student e.g. selecting an area of the graph or plotting points on
a curve. See http://maplesoft.com/products/mapleta/types.aspx.
MapleTA is available at UW on a trial basis. Please contact me if
you wish more information about using MapleTA at UW.
Past Events
| March, 2006 | September, 2005 |
| February, 2006 | August, 2005 |
| January, 2006 | July, 2005 |
| December, 2005 | June, 2005 |
| November, 2005 | May, 2005 |
| October, 2005 | April, 2005 |
Liaison Information
Please contact me if you would like further information. Paul Kates, Mathematics Faculty LT3 Liaison, pkates@uwaterloo.ca, x7047
This page is located at www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~pkates/LT3/events.
More information about the services of the Centre for Learning and Teaching through Technology - LT3 is available at lt3.uwaterloo.ca/.
(1) More information about learning and teaching Mathematics and Computer Science, plus a description of the services I provide as Mathematics Faculty LT3 Liaison is available here.