The focus of this week’s graduate school discussions is academic, civic, and community connections. As I read, viewed, and listened to the information presented I was directed to a website called Youth Radio, where students can blog, post, create videos and respond to creations by other students. My task was to think up a smartphone App that might help learners make such connections. I followed the directions in this post that guided me on the path to creating my own app, and here is what I came up with:
My app will be called the “Real Life” app, because as a math teacher I expect to often heard the question, “When will I use this in real life?” If I cannot answer this question as a teacher, then how can I expect my students to put effort into learning the material I ask them to? The “Real Life” app is intended for math students, but math teachers can benefit from it as well when asked about real-world applications of topics.
My guiding questions are as follows:
- Does seeing a practical application for a math technique make it seem more worthwhile to learn?
- Does knowing that a particular math technique is used in a specific profession make a student more interested in that job as a possible career choice?
- Would heard from an adult professional that students can identify with (and emulate) inspire them to improve their math skills?
My “Real Life” app will let the user type a math topic into a search bar, and then be directed to pictures of that math topic being applied to an actual problem. For example, if the topic is a parabola, a picture of a satellite dish might pop up that has lines showing how any wave that enters the dish will be reflected to the same focus point. The app will also provide a list of careers that require the use of the given topic. Clicking on any of the job titles will provide an explanation of what makes that specific job unique. Finally, there will be links to 2 or 3 videos for each topic. These videos will be little 2-minute clips of professionals who work in the listed fields talking about why they need to know about the topic in order to perform their occupational duties. I will take extra care to seek out clips from people of varying genders, ages, and ethnic backgrounds so that students who are curious will be able to find adult role models that they might identify with. After viewing the found information, users will be encouraged to post what they have learned to their social media sites as encouragement to others and for validation of academic curiosity. Another possibility might be “contact links” where students can e-mail questions about the chosen math topic. This would require some volunteer efforts on the part of the professionals I create video clips with.
My app will require internet access, use of an audio/video player, and will encourage sharing via social media.
In my next post I will discuss critique and feedback I receive concerning my app idea.
Thanks for reading,
Eric L.