How to engage student in Mathematics

It has become common problem for teachers that students do not take interest in the mathematics class. Teachers struggle in engaging student in mathematics. Teachers need to change their teaching style by introducing some new ideas and techniques to engage student.

Following are some of the techniques that can help teacher to engage student.

1.    Use technology in the class room: From last few years technology has become integral part of the system. Students now use cell phones, computer, ipods etc. They are familiar with computers and the internet. So technology can be used to teach student in the class room and students are allowed to access their homework or schoolwork on computers through internet. Students can communicate with each other.
2.    Incorporating Multimedia: Multimedia in the form of games, videos can be used with lessons to make class room learning more interesting.
3.    Use Math Games: Math games can be used to make math learning more interactive and interesting. This will help student to learn math with fun.
4.    Introducing Videos: Before starting any new topic it will be good to use a video to introduce the concept to students.
5.    Use real world examples: Using real world examples in teaching help students to learn the concept easily. Student can relate the topic with real world examples and they don’t need to memorize the whole concept.
6.    Provide online resource for student help: Students who require little more time to understand the concept can be provided with extra help in the form of online resource such as self learning modules, games, video etc.

Test your Math Skills

Here are list of some Sample Test for Mathematics (grade-wise):

1. Grade 6th Mathematics
2. Grade 7th Mathematics
3. Grade 9th Mathematics
4. Grade 10th Mathematics

Click on above links to take your test.

Visit the website www.educosoftregister.com for more Demos.

You can also access the complete course by registering yourself under Educosoft’s Self Learning Portal.

Learning problems in children and their remedies

There are children that suffer from many of the learning problems. Some children excel at studies while others strive hard. Let’s discuss some of the different behavioral and learning problems that students aged 5-15 face.

Dyslexia
Dyslexia is reading and writing problem. The children find it difficult to read what they have written. Dyslexia is characterized by the difficulty of brain in separating and processing written and verbal language. These children find it difficult to learn spelling and to read fluently. They also confuse between similar looking letters like b, d, p, q, etc. They also tend to skip letters, words or sentences while reading.

Dyscalculia
The students who have problems with math may have Dyscalculia. Dyscalculia is problems associated with numbers. They interchange the places of digits. This problem makes it difficult for the children to learn mathematics.

Children with these types of disorders may be smart at one or more special skills. They need to extra hard work comparing with common students. Helping the children and instilling in them a sense of confidence is essential for the development of such children and to help them lead successful lives.

www.educosoft.com (online teaching and learning portal for science and mathematics) provides great help to the students suffer from dyslexia and dyscalculia. It allows them to learn mathematics on their on way.
Click here to see, a mathematics teacher describes how EducoSoft helps students suffering from dyslexia.

Benefits of using Educosoft’s Online Science and Mathematics Learning System

www.educosoft.com, the portal I talked about in my earlier post, is the best portal I have ever seen that provides online teaching and learning of mathematics and science subjects. It has lot’s of benefits for student, teachers as well as for parents. Some of benefits of using www.educosoft.com are as follows:

For Students:

• 24×7 access to tutorials and several learning activities, acclaimed to be the best in the world for self learning.
• Syllabus aligned with CBSE curriculum / NCERT and also for ICSE and other state curriculum.
• Interactive presentation, both in learning and self assessment.
• Minimizes, almost eliminates test phobia. You can do as many practice tests as you like. If you do not know the answer, just click on solution.
• Check progress report anytime and share with parents

For Teachers

• Electronic Lecture Notes (ELN) are available for all classes from 6th to 12th.
• They can improve themselves to be better and more effective.
• They can convert class room into an interactive discussion forum, instead of using most class time for writing and drawing on chalk board with your back to students.
• EducoSoft.com provides a comprehensive system of Learning Management System, fully loaded with with all the content.
• They do not have to grade Homework, it is done by the system. All records are maintained electronically.

For Parents

• Progress report available any time from home.
• Details of all the activities (Discussion / Practice Tests / Test your skill) are listed with dates and time spent.
• Much better and least costly option for providing tutoring help in comfort of home.

For more details, you can visit site www.educosoftregister.com (Promotional website of EducoSoft)

Digital Learning and Online Education

Digital learning recently launched its monthly magazine on the occasion of its 3rd anniversary. Digital Learning education magazine focuses on the current trends, perspectives, researches, discussions and initiatives of various countries of the world in the field of ICT and education.
Some of the key areas of the magazine are:
•    Educational Institutions, Policy Institutions, R&D Organizations
•    Government Departments/Ministries
•    IT Industry, e-Learning Software Providers, Practitioners and PSUs, NGOs
•    Academicians, Students, Researchers, Administrators
•    Donors, Funding organizations, UN bodies
It was consisting of a) interviews of some of the well known person of Indian Education Sector and b) their views on current education trends in India and c) Case study of various websites providing online education.
There was an interview of Dr Manmohan Sharma President, Educo International.
In his interview, he describes:

1. How Educosoft was conceptualized?
2. How effective is the Educosoft online learning system in enhancing the performance of students?
3. What kind of feedback you have received for your product in India?
4. What pattern does Educosoft follow for its assessments?
5. Are there any plans to cater to other subjects apart from Math?

Click here to see how he responded to these questions.

Click here to see the Case Study of EducoSoft.com.
Click here to view the complete magazine.

E-learning can have positive effect on classroom learning

As the E-learning has become the integral part of education and training, there are beliefs that E-Learning is replacement to traditional teaching and learning. But its not like that, E -learning can help in traditional class room teaching and learning. E-learning turns teaching and learning into a shared endeavor.

E-learning is defined as technology-based learning. Tutorials, homework, quizzes, tests etc. are delivered completely online. In some instances, no in-person interaction takes place. Compared with the traditional, face-to-face classroom learning that centers on teachers teaching content and pedagogy, e-learning is a more learner-friendly.

Since there’s an emphasis on more learner-centric activities than traditional lecture-based classroom learning, the teacher is more of a facilitator in an online classroom. Not only does that enhance the collaborative nature of online learning, it also motivates students to be much more engaged and to take more responsibility for what they’re learning.

I found one of such kind of platform named www.EducoSoft.com. Presently it covers the mathematics only, science subjects will be available very soon. All the details and Demos are available at www.EducoSoftRegister.com, the sister site of www.EducoSoft.com.

Seminars on Online Education of Math and Science subjects

Educo International is organizing a series of Seminars during the months of January and February, 2009 at Delhi and NCR titled  “Empowering the Teachers to Engage Students” and the focus is 6th to 12th grade Mathematics and Sciences with special emphasis given to board classes (10th and 12th). Seminar dates and venue given below:

This is the fourth seminar we are having in Delhi for National Capital Region (NCR) on request from several teachers and educators. The last seminar was held on 15th July at India International Center (IIC) attended by 234 teachers from 104 schools.

The primary objective of this seminar is to demonstrate to teachers how Internet technologies can improve the quality of teaching and learning of mathematics and sciences, offered through Local Area Network (LAN) in schools and through web platform www.educosoft.com from homes for students. A Brief overview of the platform follows.

These Seminars also intend to demonstrate how to improve teaching and provide effective tutoring support to students from the comfort of their homes through Internet. This Seminar will include; presentations by eminent mathematic educators from US and India, and question/answer sessions, followed by lunch. The participants will be exposed to some of the best practices in the use of Internet based technology tools, by the pioneers in this field, for improving the quality of class room teaching and for engaging the students in several learning and assessment activities from home.  Seminar overview follows Platform Overview.

After the seminar, teachers who like the platform will be provided an opportunity to get training in its use within two weeks of the seminar and during summer break. There are no costs involved for participation in this seminar or for training thereafter. Seminars and the training are supported by Educo International India Pvt. Ltd, or its regional extension centers in different states.

Schedule of Seminars

Date	Venue	Time
14th January, 2009	Conference Centre University of Delhi Opp. Faculty of Arts North Campus, Delhi – 7	8:30 to 2:00 PM
15th January, 2009	Dilli 6, c/o Residency Hotel, Sector 15 Noida	8:30 to 2:00 PM
11th February, 2009	India International Centre, Lodhi Instt. Area New Delhi – 3	8:30 to 2:00 PM

For detailed information mail to Ritu at rbhardwaj@educo-int.com.   Or call  011-45553888

This initiative will provide teachers, students, and administrator’s effective options to use the latest technologies for delivering and managing instruction in mathematics and sciences.

Mathematics Self Learning Program for Students

EducoSoft.com’s Self Learning Program empowers students for self learning. It Consist of most of the math learning activities like tutorials, practice tests, speed test, and teacher created assessments (homework, and quizzes) that enables students to learn mathematics on their own way. A brief description of all these activities given below:

• Tutorials and solved examples with step by step solutions, each with several variations.
• Practice tests, several sets for each topic, with step by step solutions.
• Speed tests with adjustable time, in different modes with or without instant feedback, can view/print complete report after test. It accommodates students of all ability levels.
• Teacher created home work with embedded tutorials, and quizzes/tests, different for every student, with instant grading, recording, and feed back.
• Progress report for students that they can view or print anytime.

In self learning student picks a topic and starts with tutorials and examples of that topic. After having done the tutorials and examples, he can take the practice test, Homework, Graded test and Speed test. Then he moves for the next topic.

Click here to see how Student Self Learning works.
For More details and Registration visit www.educosoftregister.com

The Best way to teach math online

Math teachers spent lot of time to think how to teach their students. What is the best way, to get students understand the topics. They have to teach, take test, do the problem sets, write papers, checking the tests and papers, creating the reports and many more things. All these exercise requires a lot of time and the skills. And with the expansion of education and commercialization and decreasing level of talent in teaching profession, it’s difficult to find quality teachers or tutors.
The www.educosoft.com empowers the teachers or tutors to do better than what is normally done. It provides a powerful Mathematics LMS (Learning Management System). It comprises of tutorials embedded with assessment and assessment with instant feedback. Several sets of practice test are pre-created. Different sets of question of same type. Teachers just need to guide and monitor the student. He can give the different test to different student by just picking up the question of specific topic. All the problem sets are pre-created. Marking of test automatically done by the system and reports can be created instantly at any time.
Really a great tool for teachers and students to teach and learn mathematics online.

Online Math Tools

Here are the list of some useful math tools:

• Java Calculator : Java Calculator accepts brackets, functions like sin, cos, tan, exp, log, sqrt, pow, asin, acos, atan, gamma, the constants E und PI. On the calculator’s web page you find a detailed description. In a cooperation between the author and maths online in the beginning of 2000, the calculator’s functionality has been extended. (The above version is loaded from the maths online website. Its original location is there).
• Maths online mini calculator : A handy calculator appearing in a small window. It contains only a single input line, but it understands (almost) as many statements as the JavaCalc calculator referred to above.
• Math Online Function Plotter : After entering one or more functional expressions, the graphs are drawn. Using the zoom option, you may study the graphs from a very “close” viewpoint and read off coordinates of interesting points with an accuracy of about 10^-14. (Java applet; part of the program is the parser by Darius Bacon).
• Numerical computation of sequences : After typing in an expression for a_n, an initial value, an upper bound and a step-width, the items of the sequence are represented numerically.
• Numerical Computation of Series : After typing in an expression for a_k, the items of the sequence of partial sums are represented numerically.
• The Integrator tool : A very useful tool: Type in an expression defining a function and get its (indefinite) integral in closed form. The expression may contain symbolic constants. The computation is taken over by the computer algebra system Mathematica. Here, the action of functions must – according to the Mathematica syntax, be denoted by square brackets! Inputs are case-insensitive (in Mathematica standard functions are written with capital first letter), the symbol * for multiplication may be omitted.
  Example: Tan[x] + x^2 Exp[-x], not tan(x) + x^2 exp(-x).

Above tools give a quick way to get the answers of the different type of math questions. If you want  to have complete understanding of mathematics concepts and step by step solution for the question, you can use the Educosft.com’s Online Math Learning Management System. Demos, Free trial registration options and all other details related to use this system are available on the sister website www.educosoftregister.com.