Math Education Free Videos

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[edit] Introduction

There is a steadily increasing amount of video materials available free or at low cost on the Web. This page explores some of these sites and what they have available.

Math education is traditionally taught in a stand and deliver manner. In higher education, the stand and deliver usually provides a reasonable amount of interaction in the form of students asking question, but the teacher's "stand and deliver" component of a math class period is still a dominant feature in most math classes.

At the precollege level, much less time is spent in the stand and deliver mode, because quite a bit of class time is devoted to students doing seat work.

In both settings group work can be a useful aid to teaching and learning. However, for many teachers, this represents a considerable change in how a class is structures and the values places on non-traditional activities.

In group work, for example, students might work on an activity together, or them might explain to each other the process they used to solve a problem. A short video may be quite helpful in stimulating small group or whole class discussion.

[edit] Annenberg Media

The Annenberg Media collection contains materials from many different disciplines. Many of their materials are available for free use by educators, but you must provide them with some information about yourself in the sign up process. Here are some general categories of their math materials. this is only a partial list. Lots more sets of videos are available.

  • Algebra: In Simplest Terms. (1991) Twenty-six half-hour videos. A step-by-step look at algebra concepts. Video instructional series for college and high school classrooms and adult learners.
Mathematics Illuminated is a 13-part, integrated-media resource created for adult learners and high school teachers. The series covers the broad scope of human knowledge through the study of mathematics and its relevance in the world today. It reaches beyond formulas and computations to explore the math of patterns, symmetry, relationships, multiple dimensions, and more, all the while uncovering the secrets and hidden delights of the ever-evolving world of mathematics.
Mathematics Illuminated unites the strengths of traditional and new media learning through the coordinated 13 half-hour videos, online texts, web interactive activities, and group activities.

[edit] WGBH Boston, 1997.

See how the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards are used in elementary classrooms across America. Elementary teachers tap the excitement and energy of children from kindergarten through grade 4 as they solve problems, learn to make connections between concepts, and communicate and reason mathematically. Teaching Math K-4 documents effective teaching and learning in many schools: small, large, rural, suburban, and inner-city.
See real middle school teachers incorporating the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards into their lessons, while learning as much about teaching as their students do about math. The programs demonstrate how teachers guide and assess student understanding, and offer strategies for keeping students motivated and engaged at this critical age.

[edit] Khan Academy

The Khan Academy offers more than 650 free videos covering a wide range of topics. Math areas covered include Arithmetic, Singapore Math, Pre-algebra, Algebra, Geometry, Precalculus, Probability, Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations. The videos are available on You Tube. See http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy?ob4.

The videos I examined were about 10–15 minutes in length. They are informal (not carefully scripted in advance) "chalk and talk" presentations of moderate quality. A computer screen, with multiple colors of "chalk," is used with voice over to do the presentations.

Many of the videos begin with a black screen showing only a white cursor. Others begin with a screen full of writing—perhaps left over from the previous video in a series. The "drawing" on the screen is mostly like modest quality on a chalkboard, although the computer system the teacher is using provides facilities for more precise (computer-like) drawing.

[edit] Countdown, Loyola University

Countdown (n.d.). Using the technology of QuickTime movies to develop math skills. Loyola University Chicago, School of Education. Retrieved 10/6/08: http://countdown.luc.edu/ContentIndex/a_index.html.

These short videos provide didactic instruction. A teacher of teachers might want to make use of some of these in a class designed to help preservice and inservice teachers learn to analyze various ways to teach math. Quoting from the Website:

COUNTDOWN is a challenging interactive television math program which has engaged tens of thousands of students through broadcasts on cable television in Chicago. Capitalizing on the one on one relationship a student viewer has with television, COUNTDOWN makes math “work”. Each week the program introduces a different math concept through direct instruction and reinforces lessons with literature, manipulatives, activities and related computer instruction. Student viewers are encouraged to call a televised phone number to participate in the show by responding to challenges presented by the on-air educators.
More than three hundred different COUNTDOWN programs have been broadcast exploring topics many elementary students might not see in their classrooms such as logic, perimeter, area, probability, graphing, congruence, integers and much more. Focusing frequently on “under taught” concepts, COUNTDOWN shifts the target age for its audience from season to season to maximize the program’s reach. COUNTDOWN also seasonally adjusts curriculum to incorporate specific instruction students need to sharpen test taking skills. [Bold added for emphasis.]

[edit] Curious George

Curious George Math Videos http://www.sqooltools.com/edvideos/cgeorge/cgmath.html http://www.sqooltools.com/edvideos/cgeorge/index.html

http://www.sqooltools.com/edvideos/index.html


[edit] Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth

This 15:25 video has received a lot of publicity. It severely criticizes several of the widely used elementary school math textbook series. If you are a teacher of preservice or inservice elementary school math teachers, you might want to use this short video along with class discussion and perhaps a writing assignment to get your students to think about reform math versus traditional math.

[edit] Other Interesting Videos

Babbage's Mechanical Calculator Comes to Life. Retrieved 5/4/08: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/05/exclusive-video.html. Approximately 4 minutes in length. Quoting from the Website:

Charles Babbage completed plans for an elaborate, all-mechanical calculator in 1849. His Difference Engine #2 was so complicated, with more than 8,000 separate parts, that it was never built during his lifetime. But now, thanks to the efforts of dedicated, historically-minded engineers at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, plus a generous donation of cash from Microsoft gazillionaire genius Nathan Myhrvold, Babbage's Difference Engine is on display in Silicon Valley.

Chancler, Ndugu (n.d.). The rhythm track. Retrieved 10/7/08: http://www.thefutureschannel.com/dockets/realworld/the_rhythm_track/. 6:35 minutes. Quoting from the Website:

Have you ever had students say to you, "I don’t need math, I’m going to be a musician!" Why not introduce them to world-renowned drummer Ndugu Chancler, who explains why math is essential to music?

Powers of 10. Retrieved 10/14/08: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%22Powers+of+Ten%22+film+OR+video&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#.

This site provides access to several slightly different versions of a nine minute video illustrating powers of 10. The video was "Made by the Office of Charles and Ray Eames" for IBM." Many viewers describe the video as "awesome."

Simple statistical data worth thinking about. View the short video at http://release.theplatform.com/content.select?pid=x7aVOMrlfkkijQwcLllwk6WjB5JE0zrF. Then work with your students to produce an ever changing bulletin board that contains such examples. When a new example is added to the bulletin board, it can be a topic for a brief class discussion about issues such as possible misleading use of statistics, the difficulties of gathering accurate data, and the difficulties of making effective use of such data.

[edit] References

[edit] Author or Authors

This topic was one of the sessions at the Oregon 2007 Teachers of Teachers of Mathematics (TOTOM) meeting. A variety of people have contributed to creating this Wiki page. Readers are encouraged to add to this site.

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