Master of Educational Studies: EDUC7010NA (1) 20110723 Presentation

This innovation is about the Use of Blogs in Mathematics Classroom. The innovation here is not about creating something new, but it involves 2 things:

Looking at existing technology from a different lens, despite of its "well-known" function.
Challenge the deep-seated mindset that Mathematics is a subject that is best to be learnt through drill and practice and is best thought with chalk and board.

(1) About the technological platform
More often than not, we associate Blogs with Journal writing, and therefore even when the platform was brought to use in teaching and learning, we would associate it with subjects that are heavily text-based like Languages and History. This is largely because in the early days, (the simplest) blog platform was largely text-based and its structure allows one to organise the content in a chronological manner. Another unique feature was it allow interaction between the writer and the reader, hence providing a feedback channel. These two latter features distinguished itself from standard websites.

Over the years, however, there were much development and enhancements on blog features. On top of text, the blog platform started to "accommodate" other features such as images, video clips and gradually, it came with functions such as "gadgets" that allowed users to embed other "third" party applications into its platform. This results in the 'phenomenon' that we called "mashing" when it allows the "integration" of several applications in a common place. Just to name a few of the enhancements:

embed a video clip that was posted in Youtube in a blog (example) or a slideshow posted in another platform (example),
include a form to capture specific user response by embedded a Googleform and display the consolidated data (example) to the reader.

With these additional features, it posts lots of potential to facilitate interactions in the classroom. It could also served as a "learning space" depending on how structured or creative the learning programme is designed and having the activities that leverage on the functions available.

(2) The Mathematics Curriculum
The 'traditional' approach in the mathematics classrooms have been long proven to be "effective". The tradition method involved heavy front loading and drill and practice for students to attain skill (and operational) mastery. If we refer to the mathematical framework (by Singapore MOE CPDD Maths unit), there are other domains and skill sets that were not so heavily emphasized, largely due to the format and nature of national examinations that students had to sit.This further reinforced the belief that the traditional approach worked.