Today’s blog post is from Tessa Bissette from West Central Technical College.
I am always looking for good learning objects. My definition of a learning object that involves technology is a digital, interactive lesson on one specific topic. In terms of mathematics, I consider a learning object to be something like this one on factoring the difference of two squares.
I especially like the way in which the author entices the students to pick out the perfect squares by clicking them with the mouse. When the student picks a number that is a perfect square, the number actively busts apart in a fireworks display. This type of interactivity keeps the student interested and entertained!
I have noticed that my students retain more when they are actively engaged. These types of learning objects do more than just present the material. They make the student complete a task with the presented material. This is the type of learning object that I want to see more of.
I have been searching for learning objects on many different sites like NROC (National Repository of Online Courses) and Merlot but none of these have as many useful objects for basic community college math as WISC-Online (the Wisconsin Online Learning Object Repository). In addition to having learning objects that you can purchase for a very small fee, they are willing to work with instructors to create learning objects. For me, this is a great opportunity to work with people who have the programming skills to create objects that I could only dream of making.
If you know of other websites that have this type of learning object, please share!
Thanks Tessa for the post! To find Maria in India, go here.
