A Patheway for Mathematical PracticesMelanie Wenrick, Jean L. BehrendTeaching Students Math, the best way we know how!

Page 4Table of Contents

Instead of hitting the slopes or the beach in January for a little rest and relaxation, 20 Harvard graduate students opted to remain on campus and hit the books for an intense, two-

week teaching and learning boot camp.

The Harvard University January Academy on Technology-Enabled Teaching and Learning offered Harvard doctoral students the chance to learn from experts from across the University about current thinking and best practices in using technology to support education. The seminar also paired the students with Harvard mentors who helped them to develop a project, enabled by technology, that connected to their work as teaching fellows.

“We need to be training the future faculty of the world, who are our graduate students, in understanding digital technologies, how they apply to education, and what the possibilities are,” said Katie Vale, director of the academy technology group in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and HarvardX course development manager, who led the academy along with Marlon Kuzmick, associate director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. “We want to be giving them the best possible start, both here at Harvard, and as they begin their careers in academia.”

The seminar, the first of what Harvard officials hope will be an annual event, was sponsored by HarvardX, a broad set of activities that includes Harvard’s participation in EdX, the new online learning enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching (HILT), the University’s presidential initiative to spark innovation in higher education.

Use the Acadamey

The academy is in keeping with HILT’s mission of bringing together scholars from across Harvard who can share best practices, learn from one another, and drive innovation, said Erin Driver-Linn, associate provost for institutional research and HILT director. “This is a fantastic opportunity for us to experiment with a new collaborative program, just as the January academy attendees were experimenting with new tools and approaches to teaching and learning.”

During the seminar, the experts met with the students in a Boylston Hall classroom for fours hours a day. Faculty members, librarians, curators, instructional technologists, and staff members from

Harvard’s various teaching and learning centers visited the class to explore subjects such as instructional design, educational assessment tools, library resources, teaching with digital images and museum collections, online tools for collaboration and peer learning, and the finer points of copyright law.

“As we start thinking about making things more open in terms of HarvardX, people need to be aware of restrictions and how they find things they might want to use in their teaching, like media objects, or printed materials, that are free of copyright,” said Vale.

Learning SeminarsResponse to the seminar was strong. Within a week, more that 30 people replied to an email requesting proposals. (Students could submit their own proposals, and faculty could also nominate graduate students for the program.) A joint HarvardX, HILT, Bok Center, and academic technologies team narrowed the list to about 20 participants, and then started looking for mentors. The first stop was the HILT Teaching & Learning Consortium. The group includes representatives from all Harvard Schools, libraries, museums, teaching and learning centers, and academic technology groups.

“We got such great participation. … We love working with students and we are all passionate about educational technology,” said Vale.

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autaept atatet invellati conem qua.

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One of those eager mentors was Terry Aladjem, executive director of the Bok Center, who worked closely with Zoe Silverman, a graduate student in the History Department. During their first meeting, Aladjem suggested the names of people from across the University who could help Silverman create a website to aid fellows interested in teaching with items from Harvard’s museums and libraries.

“The skills amassed during the January academy are just the sort of thing that will guide the teaching of the future,” said Aladjem, adding, “It was particularly satisfying to have a mentoring role with Zoe, and to see her wonderful project on ‘teaching with objects’ blossom in such a short time.”

Graduate TeachingThe graduate students hailed from six Schools and arrived armed with a range of innovative projects aimed at helping them to better interact and connect with their students, while helping their students further explore, engage, and understand their course material.

The projects included a plan to integrate geographic information systems, timelines, multimedia, and blog capabilities into a Web portal for students studying the history of the British Empire. There was Silverman’s comprehensive online resource for graduate students interested in learning how to teach with objects from Harvard’s vast collections. And there was

an effort to launch a new type of scientific journal that incorporates multimedia and peer-reviewed tutorials into a text-based format.

The LoungeBoylston Hall’s Ticknor Lounge buzzed at the end of the seminar’s first day as mentors and graduate students met in small groups to discuss their projects. In one corner, Marrikka Trotter huddled over

a laptop with Kevin Lau, the head of library information systems and instructional technology at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD).

A third-year Ph.D. student in architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism at GSD, Trotter asdf asdlfj this is an article that needs more lines in it or else it will not look good. Is working with K. Michael Hays, Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory and GSD associate dean. ∆

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TECH in the

Classroom

An ever changing environment and how

to adapt.

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The hallways at Westlake High School in Maryland are just like thousands of other school hallways around the country: kids

milling around, laughing and chatting on their way to class.

On a recent morning, about 30 kids took their seats in a classroom that initially seems like any other. The major difference here is that instead of a chalkboard and a lectern at the head of the class, there are

two enormous flat-panel screens and thin, white microphones hanging in four rows across the ceiling. This should bump down one more line to help other things out.

Skype, and moreGreeting the students via Skype this morning is a dapper, bearded man in a brown vest. But it’s not their history teacher, it’s Kenneth C. Davis, author of Don’t Know Much About History, who was invited to

talk to the students about America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This type of teaching is a novel approach, but it can be an expensive one. That has some asking whether the billions being spent on educational technology is worth the cost.

‘"NOT A PANACEA"‘

Davis encourages the students at Westlake to ask questions. The students remain attentive for the hourlong lecture, but they could be getting a similar lecture from their AP history teacher. And while Davis doesn’t charge for his time, the tele-presence room cost the school tens of thousands of dollars.

James Mascia, who teaches English at Westlake, tells Celeste Headlee, host of weekends on All Things Considered, that it’s worth it because he’s been able to bring in all kinds of interesting people, digitally, to engage with the students.

“We teleconferenced with [author] Dave Barry, which was a lot of fun,” Mascia says.

Senior Jayla Briscoe was there when the comedian and author Skyped in to talk to kids. Briscoe acknowledges she didn’t know who Barry was at the time.

“I didn’t really know much about him at all,” Briscoe says, “[but] he actually got me more interested in writing.”

Mascia’s class also spoke over Skype with poet Nikki Giovanni. And next week, students in another class will watch the live dissection of a cadaver, safely and at a distance through the big, flat screens and the digital microphones.

Davis’ Response

Historian Davis has given many of these lectures for schools all over the world. And though these are only “virtual appearances,” he says he doesn’t feel removed from the students.

“I’ve been amazed by how really truly immediate it is,” Davis says. “And, obviously, this does enable me, as a writer based in New York, to get to places I’d otherwise never be able to get to.”

Davis says that this isn’t just about Skype in the classrooms, but about teachers using this technology to open up their classroom to a much wider world that he calls the “connected classroom.”

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BUT IF WHAT THEY'RE REALLY DOING IS INVESTIGATING,

USING SIMULATIONS AND GOING OUT AND

PARTICIPATING IN REAL-WORLD PROJECTS, THEN WE

SEE A REAL CHANGE.

"

But technology is just a tool, Davis says,

“I’ve seen teachers completely dedicated to making their students interested, enthusiastic, energetic learners, and using this technology is just one of the tools to do That sentiment is echoed by Mascia, the English teacher at Westlake. He says Skype lectures work because the teacher still has control, and it’s still a communal learning experience.

“I probably wouldn’t want to give every kid a laptop in class, because it’s not as controllable … as something like our tele-presence center,” Mascia says. “You would have to monitor the kids a lot more.”

Classroom 2.0

Schools across the country are spending billions on various kinds of technology for the classroom. Kristen Purcell of the the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project recently co-authored a new study on technology in the classroom. She says schools aren’t just investing in computer stations and keyboards.

“What did surprise us though was the extent to which mobile tools have become part of the learning process,” Purcell says. “[We found that] 73 percent of teachers that we surveyed told us that cell phones are now either part of their classroom experience, or their students’ classroom experience. Tablets and e-readers are being used by more than four in 10 of these teachers.”

So far, there hasn’t been a way to measure how effective all this technology is and whether or not it’s actually helping kids learn. In some districts where schools have invested heavily in computers and e-readers, test scores have remained the same or fallen.

Howard Pitler, a former high school principal and now the chief program officer at McREL, an education research and development group, says there are challenges in measuring the changes in student engagement while learning with tech in the classroom.

“It is a matter of engagement, and standardized tests as we know them today don’t measure engagement,” Pitler told Headlee.

Despite the cost of some of the setup at Westlake, Pitler says the technology has changed enough that putting together a Skype lecture is within the realm of any teacher with a smartphone and a cord to a projector. What’s important, he says, is just not putting Skype, tablets or e-readers in the classroom, but how the teachers are using the technology.

“Doing what you’ve always done and just putting electricity behind it isn’t going to change things,” he says. “But if what they’re really doing is investigating, using simulations and going out and participating in real-world projects, then we see a real change.”with greater access to funds, and those with less, is still a major issue. Purcell.

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sin nim evenita turesto torpore dolupta que nonsectem.

Ut autaept atatet invellati conem qua.

“Teachers who were teaching the lowest-income students were more likely to tell us that they do not receive formal training in the use of digital tools in the classroom,” she says. “They also express less satisfaction with the support and resources provided by schools.

“And they’re three times as likely to say their school is behind the curve when it comes to using the newest digital tools.”

That, Purcell says, makes a real difference in the classroom experience. Having both the technology available and training the teachers in how to use it, so it becomes a learning experience and not just an expensive distraction.

Teachers who were teaching the lowest-income students were more likely to tell us that they do not receive formal training in the use of digital tools in the classroom,” she says. “They also express less satisfaction with the support and resources provided by schools.

“And they’re three times as likely to say their school is behind the curve when it comes to using the newest digital tools.”

That, Purcell says, makes a real difference in the classroom experience. Having both the technology available and training the teachers in how to use it, so it becomes a learning experience and not just an expensive distraction. ∆

So, Here’s the Story of How to Teach StudentsMelanie Wenrick, Jean L. BehrendTeaching Students Math, the best way we know how!

Page 11Table of Contents

A n avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a hill or mountainside. Although avalanches can occur on any

slope given the right conditions, certain times of the year and certain locations are naturally more dangerous than others. Wintertime, particularly from December to April, is when most avalanches tend to happen. However, avalanche fatalities have been recorded for every month of the year.

Anatomy Avalanches

All that is necessary for an avalanche is a mass of snow and a slope for it to slide down. For example, have you ever noticed the layer of snow on a car windshield after a snowfall? While the temperature remains low, the snow sticks to the surface and does not slide off. After the temperature increases, however, the snow will sluff, or slide, down the front of the windshield, often in small slabs. This is an avalanche on a miniature scale.

Of course, mountain avalanches are much larger and the conditions that cause them are more complex. A large avalanche in North America might release 230,000 cubic meters (300,000 cubic yards) of snow. That is the equivalent of 20 football fields filled 3 meters (10 feet) deep with snow. However, such large avalanches are often naturally released, when the snowpack becomes unstable and layers of snow begin to fail. Skiers and recreationalists usually trigger

The avalanche track is the path or channel that an avalanche follows as it goes downhill. Large vertical swaths of trees missing from a slope or chute-like clearings are often signs that large avalanches run frequently there, creating their own tracks. There may also be a large pile-up of snow and debris at the bottom of the slope, indicating that avalanches have run.

The PartsAn avalanche has three main parts. The starting zone is the most volatile area of a slope, where unstable snow can fracture from the surrounding snow cover and begin to slide. Typical starting zones are higher up on slopes. However, given the right conditions, snow can fracture at any point on the slope.

The runout zone is where the snow and debris finally come to a stop. Similarly, this is also the location of the deposition zone, where the snow and debris pile the highest.

Several factors may affect the likelihood of an avalanche, including weather, temperature, slope steepness, slope orientation (whether the slope is facing north or south), wind direction, terrain, vegetation, and general snowpack conditions. Different combinations of these factors can create low, moderate, or extreme avalanche conditions. Some of these conditions, such as temperature and snowpack, can change on a daily or hourly basis.

An avalanche has three main parts. The starting zone is the most volatile area of a slope, where unstable snow can fracture from the surrounding snow cover and begin to slide. Typical starting zones are higher up on slopes. However, given the right conditions, snow can fracture at any point on the slope.

The runout zone is where the snow and debris finally come to a stop. Similarly, this is also the location of the deposition zone, where the snow and debris pile the highest.

Several factors may affect the likelihood of an avalanche, including weather, temperature, slope steepness, slope orientation (whether the slope is facing north or south), wind direction, terrain, vegetation, and general snowpack conditions. Different combinations of these factors can create low, moderate, or extreme avalanche conditions. Some of these conditions, such as temperature and snowpack, can change on a daily or hourly basis.

Page 12Table of Contents

Ehenim ipsandi torae experit alist velitatur rem dis de es

sin nim evenita turesto torpore dolupta que nonsectem.

Ut autaept atatet invellati conem qua.

An avalanche has three main parts. The starting zone is the most volatile area of a slope, where unstable snow can fracture from the surrounding snow cover and begin to slide. Typical starting zones are higher up on slopes. However, given the right conditions, snow can fracture at any point on the slope.

The runout zone is where the snow and debris finally come to a stop. Similarly, this is also the location of the deposition zone, where the snow and debris pile the highest.

Several factors may affect the likelihood of an avalanche, including weather, temperature, slope steepness, slope orientation (whether the slope is facing north or south), wind direction, terrain, vegetation, and general snowpack conditions. Different combinations of these factors can create low, moderate, or extreme avalanche conditions. Some of these conditions, such as temperature and snowpack, can change on a daily or hourly basis. The runout zone is where the snow and debris finally come to a stop. Similarly, this is also the location of the deposition zone, where the snow and debris pile the highest.

Several factors may affect the likelihood of an avalanche, including weather, temperature, slope steepness, slope orientation (whether the slope is facing north or south), wind direction, terrain, vegetation, and general snowpack conditions. Different combinations of these factors can create low, moderate, or extreme avalanche conditions. Some of these conditions, such as temperature and snowpack, can change on a daily or hourly basis.

An avalanche has three main parts. The starting zone is the most volatile area of a slope, where unstable snow can fracture from the surrounding snow cover and begin to slide. Typical starting zones are higher up on slopes. However, given the right conditions, snow can fracture at any point on the slope.

The runout zone is where the snow and debris finally come to a stop. Similarly, this is also the location of the deposition zone, where the snow and debris pile the highest.

Several factors may affect the likelihood of an avalanche, including weather, temperature, slope steepness, slope orientation (whether the slope is facing north or south), wind direction, terrain, vegetation, and general snowpack conditions. Different combinations of these factors can create low, moderate,

or extreme avalanche conditions. Some of these conditions, such as temperature and snowpack, can change on a daily or hourly basis. The runout zone is where the snow and debris finally come to a stop. Similarly, this is also the location of the deposition zone, where the snow and debris pile the highest.

Several factors may affect the likelihood of an avalanche, including weather, temperature, slope steepness, slope orientation (whether the slope is facing north or south), wind direction, terrain, vegetation, and general snowpack conditions. Different combinations of these factors can create low, moderate, or extreme avalanche conditions. Some of these conditions, such as temperature and snowpack, can change on a daily or hourly basis.

Several factors may affect the likelihood of an avalanche, including weather, temperature, slope steepness, slope orientation (whether the slope is facing north or south), wind direction, terrain, vegetation, and general snowpack conditions. Different combinations of these factors can create low, moderate, or extreme avalanche conditions. Some of these conditions, such as temperature and snowpack, can change on a daily or hourly basis.

Several factors may affect the likelihood of an avalanche, including weather, temperature, slope steepness, slope orientation. ∆

Page 13Table of Contents

But technology is just a tool, Davis says,

“I’ve seen teachers completely dedicated to making their students interested, enthusiastic, energetic learners, and using this technology is just one of the tools to do That sentiment is echoed by Mascia, the English teacher at Westlake. He says Skype lectures work because the teacher still has control, and it’s still a communal learning experience.

“I probably wouldn’t want to give every kid a laptop in class, because it’s not as controllable … as something like our tele-presence center,” Mascia says. “You would have to monitor the kids a lot more.”

Classroom 2.0

Schools across the country are spending billions on various kinds of technology for the classroom. Kristen Purcell of the the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project recently co-authored a new study on technology in the classroom. She says

schools aren’t just investing in computer stations and keyboards.

“What did surprise us though was the extent to which mobile tools have become part of the learning process,” Purcell says. “[We found that] 73 percent of teachers that we surveyed told us that cell phones are now either part of their classroom experience, or their students’ classroom experience. Tablets and e-readers are being used by

more than four in 10 of these teachers.”

Taking MeasuresSo far, there hasn’t been a way to measure how effective all this technology is and whether or not it’s actually helping kids learn. In some districts where schools have invested heavily in computers and e-readers, test scores have remained the same or fallen.

Howard Pitler, a former high school principal and now the chief program officer at McREL, an education research and development group, says there are challenges in measuring the changes in student engagement while learning with tech in the classroom.

“It is a matter of engagement, and standardized tests as we know them today don’t measure engagement,” Pitler told Headlee.

Cost of Setup

Despite the cost of some of the setup at Westlake, Pitler says the technology has changed enough that putting together a Skype lecture is within the realm of any teacher with a smartphone and a cord to a projector. What’s important, he says, is just not putting Skype, tablets or e-readers in the classroom, but how the teachers are using the technology.

“Doing what you’ve always done and just putting electricity behind it isn’t going to change things,” he says. “But if what they’re really doing is investigating, using simulations and going out and participating in real-world projects, then we see a real change.”with greater access to funds, and those with less, is still a major issue. Purcell.

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Problem Solvers

Melanie Wenrick, Jean L. Behrend

Monthly activity worksheets all students will enjoy!