Assignment 1.2

Purpose

As the lesson “Literacies” also addresses the new literacies disconnect between faculty and students, participants are challenged to present their ideas working with new media in the classroom and to share information on their experiences in this regard, as well as post useful teaching materials that might be useful to other teachers.

 Tasks

After watching the videos, use your previous ideas in conjunction with the information from the videos to make posts on the forum and discuss the following topics:

Literacy

  1. Did any of the definitions of literacy discussed in the video match your own definition?
  2. Which definition of literacy was the closest to your original understanding of literacy?
  3. Are any of the other definitions of literacy relevant in your context?

New literacies and new media

  • You have seen two examples of freely available new media which can be used in the classroom: GeoGebra and PhyPhox. What examples, if any, of new media do you use in your classroom?
  • How do you use these media with your students? Is there an example of an activity that works well that you could present for other teachers?
  • Could these new media also be used in other subjects?

Interaction

Read the comments of your peer learners.

  • Is there any new media available that you haven’t yet tried but would like to? Has anybody posted anything about new media that you have used and could share your own experiences on?

Reading list (not mandatory)

66 thoughts on “Assignment 1.2”

  1. The definition of ‘Literacy’ various from the context to context (Countries, Regions, Development Status, Evolution)
    For example:
    In a country, where every has got the ability to read and write, the definition of ‘Literacy’ is very different than a country that has no proper education system at all.

    In my opinion, the ‘ability to read and write’ is the broader definition that fit for all the countries in the world and could be used as a common measure/metric. For a developed nation, the literacy definition can be tailored to promote certain fields of interest to the nation. Not every education system in the world is fortunate enough to get electricity and internet, I think we can consider this the definition only to a lucky/privileged class of society. However, I agree completely that this definition of literacy given by STEM and ELIC is way forward that every nation should target and put in their development framework and actively monitor the results.

  2. As written in previous papers I think literacy is the set of basic knowledge, skills and competences that allow to move through various contexts. As far as my lessons are concerned, besides the lectures, this is what I do: activities with the use of devices we have in the physics laboratory, videos, Phet simulations, sometimes I use the app “sensor kinetics”. I didn’t know PhyPhox, It looks very interesting.

  3. Ups – Assignment 2.1, not 1.2. Whish there would be an “edit”-button …

  4. Page 5 in Assignment 1.2:
    “Car manufacturers in Germany and France state that you have to consider the energy loss caused by
    producing electric power and transport via electric network as well (see previous slide, and [2]) the
    efficiency of the electric car is reduced to ca. 28%”

    Hmmm – and whats the energy loss caused by producing fuel, starting from drilling for oil? That aspect is widely ignored in the discussion about efficiency of combustion engines.

  5. Way simpler. I dropped my Smartphone – carefully, naturally – from a hight of about 4 Meters to a gently damped destination to explore the accereration progress of falling in air and of damped landing. Another possible measurement within that would have been the one of the increase of frequency of my heartbeat while doing this …

    1. Hi austronom,
      Nice thoughts – thanks for the ideas, as that is what this page is all about!
      All the best,
      Adrian

  6. The OECD definition is closest to my understanding of engineering literacy: science-based ability for productive human creativity.

    I do not really need GeoGebra in physics, but PhyPhox is a very interesting tool which inducts creative ideas (there is way more use for the acceleration tool than just measuring the elevator acceleration …) and is excellent for the pupils own experiments (which take quite a lot of place in my education style).
    But PhET is by far my most important source for online-based learning and working with simulations.

    1. Hi austronom,
      An elevator, a rollercoaster, a salad mixer – or how about a racecar like our students build (thanks to Joanneum Racing for the picture) to test out the acceleration feature on PhyPhox? :-D
      All the best,
      Adrian

      Joanneum Racing JR16 in action

  7. As there are a lot of definitions of literacy I can agree, and we were asked for integration of digital technologies in our teaching, here a sidestep:
    I like the TPACK model of competences: http://www.tpack.org
    It describes the necessary knowledge of teachers when using technologies in the classroom. To be able for doing this, we need at first two classical competences:
    pedagogical knowledge PK: knowledge about the processes and methods of teaching and learning
    content knowledge CK: knowledge about the subject matter to be learned or taught – in my case: physics.
    In addition we need “knowledge about certain ways of thinking about, and working with technology, tools and resources” (TK).
    That gives informative intersections, e.g. TCK (technological content knowledge), for using smartphones in physics teaching e.g.: How does the camera work? What is the composition of a touchsreen…
    or TPK (technological pedagogical knowledge), e.g. How to use the smartphones of the students properly in the lessons?

    Although I know, competences (or knowledge) are not literacy (but a part of it), I miss such a clear model for the field of engineering literacy. Because one aspect is similar, seen from our role of teachers: when engineering should become integrated in our teaching, it must be related with our basic competences (PCK) in any way.

    1. Hi Gerhard,
      I found a nice little diagram from the TPACK people, which I think very nicely illustrates your comments. It comes from http://tpack.org (Reproduced by permission of the publisher, © 2012 by tpack.org).
      Thanks for contributing and all the best,
      Adrian

      Reproduced by permission of the publisher, © 2012 by tpack.org

  8. I think scientific literacy is about learning ideas and solving problems. I also join the definition of Alfonsina, which underlines the ability of critically evaluate a particular field. For a good understanding of a topic and for the conduct of research the ability to find, understand, evaluate and use information, whether from the scientific literature or from Web resources is essential. As a teacher I have to guide my students to strengthen their skills in reading, writing and speaking, to acquire technical language, to understand processes, to improve their ability in practice…not a simple job! Of great importance is the use of the laboratory, students improve their excitement and participation level spending time “being scientists” rather than just “learning science”.
    I’m an avid reader and I use a lot of different modes to access information, the network is an endless source of scientific literature but I use web resources to prepare my lessons more than directly in the classroom.
    Some interesting applications that occasionally I use with my students are https://www.keytonature.eu/wiki/, identification keys for different organisms and
    https://www.bioinformatics.org, with a lot of free software for the structure of molecules, genetic data bank and other.

    I completely agree with azs, literacy is a fascinating everlasting journey…

    1. Hi Gloria,
      Many thanks for those links and I can only agree wholeheartedly that it is so much more effective to actively use a subject, rather than merely view it as a academic study – yes, being scientists rather than learning science! Maybe one of the reasons I am quite so excited about the possibilities of new media is my school time experiences (of many years ago) which made much of the sciences – and all of the maths – such a dry subject.
      Thanks for your contributions and all the best,
      Adrian

  9. Hello,

    Regarding the questons on Literacy: I defined literacy broadly as competence in a subject, wo that comes close to definition 1 (“a set of skills”. Maybe definition 2 (“applied and practiced in a situation”) also matches a bit.

    Regarding the other questions:
    In my classroom I have already used:
    – videos (a time saving method of showing experiments. Better than nothing!)
    – webcams (good for showing small details of an experiment)
    – an app called “cahoot!” for online quizzes
    – online simulations in HTML5/java/flash, see https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/physics.
    – I also let the pupils research facts on their smartphones.

    Especially the online simulations are great for showing complicated material!
    All the methods except for the simulations can be used in other subjects as well.

    regards,
    Simon

    1. Hi Simon,
      I agree, there are subjects where it would be difficult to use simulations!!
      Thanks for your input and all the best,
      Adrian

  10. Hello.
    My previous definition of literacies was the ability of getting access to a new (scientific) topic. The skill to use one‘s own know-how for exploration. This was due to my poor english and the different definitions in different languages. The other definitions of literacies in this video, are also all important aspects of learning and approaching to new stuff.
    I also use PhyPhox in my physic lessons. A friend of mine, who is also a teacher in physics, made an excursion with his physic class to different rollercoasters in Phanstasialand (leasure park), and let his students explore the physics of mechanics by using PhyPhox on the rollercoasters… :-)
    I love the app edpuzzle for flipped-classroom-lessons. With edpuzzle, the teacher can cut and VoiceOver an existing YouTube-video and let you add control-questions at different points of the video. The answer to this questions must be right to contuine watching the video . This gives the teacher a good feedback of all his students. Edpuzzle can be used in all subject. It is Web-based and also App-based. A nice app.
    So long…

    1. Hi chratzer,
      Yes to rollercoasters!!! I should so have thought of that, instead of getting into a lift ;-)
      Thanks for your input and all the best,
      Adrian

  11. Sorry I haven’t had the time (nor – unfortunately – I think I will…) to read all the posts about literacy. However, scanning through some of them I have found lots of interesting ideas. Most of the posts underline how literacy combines different elements:
    – Knowing how to read and write (knowing the a, b, c of something)
    – Having knowledge or competence in a specified area
    – Being proficient in something
    I couldn’t agree more as I think that literacy is about mastering something, about acquiring knowledge and/or skill in order to gain control over “this something”. Literacy is not a stationary acquisition though, as it’s a process that needs to evolve and grow. And in doing so, it uses whatever means there are: books, teachers, life experiences, new media.
    As teachers, I believe that our purpose is exactly this: fostering the love, the eagerness, the craving for the process itself. Literacy is not a safe haven that we need to reach but a fascinating everlasting journey.

    1. Hi azs,
      Don’t worry – there are loads of comments and ideas on here and one of my jobs will be to try and summarise them and order them in a way that they can be scanned through easily in Week 6. An earlier comment talked about the complexity of literacies – well I think that links in really nicely to your comments on gaining control over ‘something’ – and, of course, if that something is always different, it will make for a different ‘literacy’ every time, so to think of literacy as not stationary, but mobile and ever shifting is a great way to put it!
      Thanks for contributing and all the best,
      Adrian

  12. for me, literacy is the whole set of knowledge and skills that we try to transmit to students so that are able to confront themselves in a useful and constructive way directly to the world of work that awaits them at the end of their studies.
    For me we must guide them to be able to read, interpret and represent a step by step project from the idea to the final product, making sure to be able to apply the acquired skills in practice.
    Up to now I have not used any particular software but I have preferred to do immediately to approach the students directly to the work by demonstrating them and then supporting them constantly in the different machining on the machine tools.

    1. Hi Massimiliano,
      That’s great to hear a little about your teaching context and hopefully there might be some ideas shared by others here that could be of use to you!
      Thanks for reaching out and all the best,
      Adrian

  13. Literacy is a simple and complex concept at the same time. It’s a simple concept, because everyone can easily imagine what it represents. It’s a complex concept, because it contains a large number of nuances. The first aspect seems to me very important because it makes quick to access to different fields. When someone can deal with a new subject even though in a rough way, he can start studying it in depth and take the nuances.
    Before seeing the video my idea about literacy was connected with the knowledge of a common language. The ideas presented in the video put me towards a vision more interdisciplinary and related to the sciences than before.
    About the media I believe that the teachers have to make shorter the distance between the topics of their disciplines and the students. I use often GeoGebra and recently I’ve started to make short videos (named “microlessons” and at the moment uploaded on the “Educreations” platform) for enhancing my teaching with the “flipped classroom”. In order to make easier and quicker the dialogue about Math with the students, we can chat on Telegram where we can use a public username without private phone number. At the moment I’m trying to understand if the Edmodo/Edpuzzle could integrate chat and videos effectively (!) in just one virtual workplace.

    1. Hi Andrea,
      I really like the way you describe this conundrum so succinctly, particularly with regard to the nuances of literacies that make the topic so complex. Of course, my comments in the video are leaning towards sciences and engineering, so I am sure we could find further nuances also outside these fields to make the definition even more complex!
      I don’t have any experience personally with Edmodo, but I wonder if anybody else here does…?
      Thanks for contributing and all the best,
      Adrian

  14. I think literacy could be understood as the familiarity with a certain topic. I mean the knowledge of the correct reasoning method to approach a topic, i.e. to be able to solve problems using strategies and meanings proper to that topic. On the other hand, I think literacy also means to be able to apply the correct way to learn new skills concerning the topic we are already familiar with. In that sense, the meaning of literacy involves the first three aspects highlighted by Adrian (skills, apply in practice, learning). Regarding the fourth (text), I think literacy also involves teachers that are familiar to a topic about how they could transmit this ability to the students that are learning. In this sense, I think literacy could be intended as a language that all people who are familiar to a topic use to communicate without misunderstandings. So, as a teacher, I think I have to teach this language, but with what kind of media? The difference in age between us teachers and our students stands also in the media we usually apply to teach and learn. Personally, I still use pen and paper, I think essentially because I’m not a digital native. It’s my first experience in teaching, and by now I haven’t yet used new media in my classrooms. But, I also feel that students are in difficult with abstracts concepts and cannot afford to pay attention for a long time, maybe because they are digital native. I hope that my experience as a designer in the industry could help me to build a bridge between theory and practice, so that my students could get not only knowledge, but also learn the right method to face problems related to a specific topic they are going to get familiar with.

    1. Hi Paolo,
      I think there is a two way exchange that works really well in the classroom – at least for me: I am happy to admit that I am not the greatest user of new media to my students! I generally find that they are more than happy to help me when needed, virtually flipping the classroom in a way. But also I think it helps them accept some of the ‘older’ methods I propose, for example like taking notes by hand (there is a good body of research that suggests that this aids learning, or at least remembering), rather than downloading my slides, or just taking pictures of them on their phones. I’ve been teaching for nearly 20 years now and I kind of envy you being at the beginning of the road – it’s a fabulous journey!!
      Thanks for your input and all the best,
      Adrian

  15. Nel mio contesto lavorativo “alfabetizzazione” vuol dire “fornire agli studenti strumenti di base per l’apprendimento”. Come docenti non dobbiamo mai dimenticare che noi non dobbiamo insegnare, ma far apprendere.
    Per raggiungere questo obiettivo io solitamente utilizzo l’attrezzatura del laboratorio di Fisica e le splendide simulazioni che si possono trovare sul sito https://phet.colorado.edu/it.

    In my work context “literacy” means “to provide students with basic tools for learning”. As teachers, we must never forget that we must not teach but to learn.
    To achieve this I usually use the equipment of the Physics laboratory and the beautiful simulations that can be found on the website https://phet.colorado.edu/it.

    1. Hi Giovanni,
      In German there is a saying ‘man lernt nie aus’ or ‘one never stops learning’ and I agree that it is so important that we all remember this (and what it was once like when we knew so much less that we know now). That’s also what I find exciting about this forum is seeing all of the ideas being shared, so that hopefully everyone can find something new… and learn!!
      Thanks for contributing and all the best,
      Adrian

  16. For me literacy is not very well defined. I asked a few persons in my surroundings and came up with rather different meanings. I think literacy includes also the skills one gains by interacting with others, something that can´t be learned in advance, e.g. to operate a real nuclear reactor or to participate in a battle.
    Concerning the new media I use some of the tools mentioned above, especially youtube for things I can not do, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdW1t8r8qYc
    geogebra and wolfram alpha for calculations and kahoot for motivation.

    1. Hi Rubberduck,
      Yes, literacy is a tricky one to define, which is why I think it is important to understand that there can be multiple meanings. And yes, YouTube and other like apps can certainly increase the multimodality of a classroom and I think the change up also motivates students.
      Thanks for your input and all the best,
      Adrian

  17. Literacy is a very important topic in complex societies like ours.
    I believe that literacy should no longer be aimed at providing the only skills of reading, writing and arithmetic but must provide those knowledge and skills that allow you to live in an active and conscious way.

    1. Hi AlessioDistante,
      I couldn’t agree more!
      Thanks for contributing and all the best,
      Adrian

  18. I would join in the definition of literacy Alfonsina.
    It´s “the learning of basic knowledge, skills and competences, which eventually allow us to reach the ability to critically evaluate a particular field.”
    With regard to my physics lessons I would come up with a variety of skills which are necessary for my students to “keep up” in the field of physics lessons.
    It may be the ability to understand the scientific language in the textbook or the simple mathematical ability to change an equation to see the larger context.
    With regard to the development of media use in the classroom, I think that the ability to handle the new media is also a basic ability that I would call literacy.
    If you can not operate the PhyPhox app correctly, you will not even get the relevant data to gain new insights.
    In my lesson, I use this app to do simple measurements on students’ smartphones. As the wlan expansion at our school is still to come, I have my own transportable local server in use so that my students can access my offline learning environment according to the BYOD principle.
    I use a simple WordPress installation with different LMS plugins
    https://lifterlms.com/ (paid)
    https://de.wordpress.org/plugins/learnpress/ (free)
    I try to organize classroom contexts in completed courses so that every student can learn at their own pace.
    The contents are collected in many ways.
    Self-produced learning-videos with after effects or videoscribe for example
    Since I am currently only able to use my learning environment offline in class, I am currently trying to make the content available to the students via a Youtube channel and private links. (I am still in the process of making the online version of the LMS on my website conform to the DSGVO in all areas.)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNppr-kf99I
    To make animations of Leifi and Phet available on all smartphones for the students, I often use Snagit and create screen-videos with explanatory comments.
    Oh by the way, I noticed that the first video from lesson 1.1 has probably the wrong language deposited on Youtube. The platform makes quite funny stuff from the English marked as Portuguese in the auto-translation. Just try it and activate the subtitles and then click on the German auto translation. ;-)
    I am looking forward to the next week of this e-learning project.

    1. Hi lernen2punkt0,

      I think it’s awesome that you have your own transportable local server which you use in class. In many ways, it speaks volumes of what teachers do on an every day basis to try and facilitate and enable their students learning, often with less help than might be expected from official sources. And the video you posted is a great reminder perhaps for us of how far technology has come in such a short time and how large a gap there might just be between how our digital native students consume information in different ways to we!
      Thanks for you input and all the best,
      Adrian

  19. In my opinion, Literacy in a specific subject is certainly the learning of basic knowledge, skills and competences, which eventually allow us to reach the ability to critically evaluate a particular field.
    During my lessons I prefer the utilization of laboratory experiments to teach pupils the basics of chemistry and in some case I suggest them to get a shot or a short movie of their experiment. Sometimes I use “youtube” videos or “collezioni.scuola.zanichelli.it” and if it is possible “phet.colorado.edu” if it is not possible try an experiment in the chemlab or to a better understanding of some complex arguments

    1. In my opinion, literacy belongs especially to the fields one and two that were presented in the video. But this also means, that literacy improves by training and learning, by reading new texts and making new experiences. I also use Geogebra, for example to get an idea of the parameters of functions on the graph of the function. This is an opportunity for the pupils to experiment with different functions and find the rules on their own.

    2. Dear Alfonsina, I think that it is wonderful that some teachers, as in your case, are able to adapt to the “structural” shortcomings that come from the school (which for obvious economic reasons can not provide everything necessary). A form of resilience that, however, connotes the desire to pass a clear and simplified message to their students. well done. And fortunately the new IT tools help us! 😁

      1. … and many of these tools are free (and let’s hope they stay that way!)

  20. Literacy is the word that we use to refer to a set of competences that include the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. [Unesco 2005]
    In the labs of our school, we make use of simulation software NI MULTISIM to allow our students to improve their basic skills on electronics and electical engineering.

    1. Hi agnesetraverso,
      Yes, in the video I lent very heavily on the various definitions of literacy outlined by UNESCO (you can find the full document here – https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000141639. It’s 440 odd pages long, so chapter 6 is probably the most relevant for us here if you don’t want to wade through the whole thing!).

      I’ve also included a link to MULTISIM below – but I believe I am right in saying that it is not freeware (please correct me if I am wrong), so I have also included a list from Wikipedia of freeware programmes which are electronics circuit simulators. As I am definitely no electronic engineer, please check them out for yourselves.

      Multisim: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NI_Multisim
      Wikipedia list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_electronics_circuit_simulators

  21. My definition of literacy is very close to that of the STEM described in the video, ie the combination of scientific and technical skills to solve concrete problems.
    In the past, when I was teaching physics, I have used PhET.
    In the subjects I teach nowadays, I currently use architectural modelling programs.

  22. I would define literacy as obtaining basic technical skills and information about a subject, in order to afford that subject and allow further in-depth analysis (on that subject).
    As for basic engineering literacy, I believe that could be useful for students in order to achieve a deeper understanding of the quickly changing world.

    At the moment the only media/tools I use with my students are power Point presentations and Moodle as a platform for e-learning (the second one is a basic tool in adult education, because of the attendance at the lessons is not always constant because many students work).

    1. Hi Simone,
      Thanks for your input and I hope there might be some ideas on new media for you to take away from this discussion and the toolbox!!
      All the best,
      Adrian

  23. With regard to basic engineering literacy, I believe that it should enter into all the fields of study to bring future generations closer to a deeper understanding of the technological developments taking place. I also imagine that with regard to sources (the same difficulty is found in the humanities) and the use of new technologies in teaching, it is necessary to teach students to find reliable sources and information and tools that are actually useful for facilitating processes of learning or useful tools than in the development of technical subjects.

    1. Hi caterina,
      I agree completely with your comment on reliable information sources. One problem I see with my students is that sometimes they don’t seem to be able to distinguish between a robust source and something much less reliable. The ability to look critically at something and evaluate the text is essential and definitely within the remit of literacies. And I think the introduction of new literacies via social media (etc.) have also been part of the source of the confusion between robust and less reliable, as authorship and original information sources are often more obscured in these formats.
      Thanks for your comments and all the best,
      Adrian

  24. Hi,
    for me literacy includes all the skills and knowledge that permit to analyze situation, suggest a solution to problems and examine the alternative solutions, it is also the cultural and personal background that give you the chance to face and overcome new and differents situations in life and finally the ability to acquire new information, connecting with what we already know.

    At school I use GeoGebra, it’s really interactive and it’s a good way to answer to the different pupils’ way of learning.
    I used to include TOOMATES in my lessons and Moodle tooo. I suggest you to have a look at “Dan Mayer’s Three ACT Maths ” and http://apliense.xtec.cat/arc/, you can find good tips and ideas for your lessons.

    1. Hi paolarossi,
      Yes, GeoGebra seems quite popular, doesn’t it? And thanks for the suggestion on “Dan Mayer’s Three ACT Maths ” – that will certainly go in the toolbox!
      All the best,
      Adrian

  25. My own definition of literacy is: provide basic content and skills, referring to any discipline; we could say “learn the ABC of a subject”…

    Regarding presented examples, I knew an old version of Geogebra but I never experienced it in the classroom.

    In the past I tried to use in some classes Scilab, open source version of the best known software for numerical computation MatLAB (https://www.scilab.org/)
    Currently, in adult education, we use Moodle as a platform for e-learning.

    1. Hi fulviobincolettofulviobincoletto,
      Yes we use Moodle a lot too – I think it has become the norm already. Thanks for the tip on SciLab – especially important for those who don’t want to / can’t afford a MatLab licence!
      Thanks for your input!
      Adrian

  26. In my opinion literacy can not be defined as a single competence that a person possesses or does not possess, but rather is a complex set of skills and abilities required in different life contexts and includes the ability to use printed or written texts; the ability to use mathematical tools effectively in different contexts; the ability to analyze and solve problems.
    Moreover, literacy should not be understood only as the result of education, but as a continuous process that capitalizes the learning achieved by individuals during the course of life.
    Naturally, the tools related to literacy change rapidly with the new forms created by technological communication, such as example web editor, blogs, social network, youtube, etc.
    For what concerns my teaching activity, I often use videos on youtube, but also specific simulation programs that help students to reason and analyze problems from different points of view. For example, I often use a virtual laboratory for engineering thermodynamics called “CyclePad” that allows students to build and analyze a large variety of thermodynamic cycles.

    1. Hi Lucamarisa,

      I would totally agree that literacy is not something that can be simply defined and that the related tools of literacy are changing rapidly today. So quickly that it is hard to keep up! I hope you don’t mind, but here’s a link for the other to CyclePad, in case they also find it interesting and also a paper on its use: CyclePad: http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/projects/NSF/Cyclepad/aboutcp.html
      CyclePad: An articulate virtual laboratory for engineering thermodynamics (paper): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0004370299000806

      Thanks so much for sharing!
      Adrian

  27. As I told in my presentation my discipline does not have close relations with the topic of the course. I’m a professor of art history. I am aligned with the definition of literature that we have developed during the construction of the Elic project.
    As for the intensive use of new technologies, as always, there are advantages and disadvantages.
    in this regard, I point out this video:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqjh24uq9tM&list=PLNs3s3wjYeS5fiqcxYukJXcLuu3ZQ7bfi&index=8&t=246s

  28. All the definitions of literacy discussed in the video or written in your comments match my own definition. I would summarize literacy as the ability to analyse a problem, to look for the more significant datas according to the context and to find a solution better if working in team.
    I teach maths in a technical secondary school to students of age between 13 and 19 years. My students chose electric and electronic subjects and I really want to improve my knowledges of electronic in order to enrich my mathematic lessons with many examples referred to technology.
    Sometimes I use Geogebra in multimedia laboratory. I use it in the first and second class when I explain geometry, in the third class when I explain goniometry and in the fourth and fifth class when I explain mathematic analysis. I think it’s a valid support that permits the more clever student to be active and learning by solving some problems. On the other hand weak students haven’t great advantages in the use of this software as they are only concentrated in the commands and need precise instructions to finish a work without understanding the problem.
    Other multimedia instruments I use are tests written with Google Drive Modules. I sometimes send to my student a mail with a multiple choice test hoping to stimulate them to study and repeat the lessons.

    1. Hi mariangelaconzato.
      Thanks for your input and hopefully there will be some contributions on electronics that you can take away with you – either in this forum or later on, particularly next week!
      All the best,
      Adrian

  29. My own definition of literacy was something like that: to have a set of skills and know to apply it in certain situations (quite like definition 1 & 2 from the video), but also the ability to aquire new knowledge, find connections, prove arguments, question opinions in a critical way and further the ability to find own opinions. This definition is maybe more general, but regarding models in physics I think it’s important to have the ability to test different aspects of the model in a critical way.

    For example this can be done by simulations. Some suggestions for simulations I use are:
    PHET – https://phet.colorado.edu/de/
    LEIFI – https://www.leifiphysik.de/

    I also use YouTube-Videos to summarize topics. Some channels I use are:
    Simple Physics – https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSimplePhysics
    Simple Math – https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSimpleMaths
    Minute physics – https://www.youtube.com/user/minutephysics

    TheSimpleClub- Team also offers videos for other subjects.

    1. Hi Reia,
      I’ve been using YouTube a lot with students too and am always trying to find new sources, so thanks for posting those channels and also the simulation tools!
      All the best,
      Adrian

    2. Thank you very much reia for your suggestions.
      I found in phet.colorado.edu/de/ some intersting simulations concerning electric circuits that I suggested to my physic colleagues.
      I’m sure that all of you Know also “Khan Academy” website. I suggest to use it to all my students for any subjects as I often do!

    3. SimpleClub is sometimes great, sometimes horrible wrong – you really have to be careful with that and it is absolutely necessary to pre-view the videos before using them in lectures. For example: the video to the greenhouse effect is desastrous wrong:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1wP42f5GAc

  30. For me literacy ment how competent one is in a certain field. So I understood it as a context bound competence. It tells me, how easily I „move“ around in a certain field, how easily can I communicate topics of that field.
    So for me also the aspect of a set of skills and the aspect of application fit best for my unterstanding. Of course the aspect of learning is very relevant for me, but I think it is somehow included if we talk about literacy in the context of schools and teaching. I just don‘t fully understand why we should expand the meaning to the text itself. Texts are obviously an important aspect, if we want to test or improve literacy. But what do we win by including the text itself to the meanig of the word?

    A very useful source of tools is https://phet.colorado.edu. You can find many interactive simulations there, which are designed, so that the pupils can use them. It has simulations for all STEM fields.
    Another classical source of course is youtube: If you want to show an experiment, which is to dangerous, you can show a video. Or you can youse filmmaterial as input or as material which can be analysed by the pupils.

    An app I use in mechanics is VidAnalyser. With this tool the pupils can film moving objects and analyse them frame by frame or automatised. This is very specialized for mechanics.

    A very useful app for general assesment is plickers. You can also use it in classes where no phones are allowed, because the pupils just get a printed QR-Code. This is useful for every kind of subject.

    1. Many thanks for your input Jakob! We are collecting your ideas and suggestions and will put them into our toolbox which we are filling alongside with the MOOC.
      Erika

    2. Hi Jakob,

      Thanks for your input – that’s the kind of thing we were completely hoping for. I think the more teachers we can get together with great teaching ideas, the better the toolbox can be for everyone to dip in and out of, according to their interests and needs.

      With regards to my comments on the different types of literacies, and text in particular, all I wanted to do was highlight the different understandings of literacy and make everyone aware that we may all be coming from different viewpoints. In my opinion, I think all four types of literacy (as skills, applied and practised, as a learning process and as a text) are relevant, interrelated and different enough to warrant at least a mention.

      In particular, I think text has become relevant to me in recent times due to the differences in the way people consume information, as text could just as easily be a spoken text on a video as a written text in a book – and video today is just as accessible as a book (if not more so!). This, of course, is because of the advent of the internet and related technologies, and for me personally, it is both interesting and necessary to try and make sure I align at least some of my classroom ‘texts’ to my students (I don’t believe that everything has to be aligned – there’s also space for old-fashioned texts too!).

      So again, thank you for the contribution above – I think it has already started to stimulate a healthy discussion around the new media we are all using and highlight some really useful tools.
      All the best,
      Adrian

      1. Hi Adrian,
        thank you for your detailed answer. It’s interesting that you mention the differences in the way people consume information.
        Because at the moment I am concerned with individualizing my lessons and how this can be achieved in a student-centered way of teaching. One of the proposed papers (Rose. Democratising the classroom) mentions the problem, that this also can lead to marginalizing the many not so strong pupils. I am grateful that he also shows ways, to avoid this.
        So I am looking forward to the discussions on how to work with texts and specialized new media in the specific context of engineering.

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