by natbanting 
My first attempt at animating patterns was published on this blog in 2013. I suppose you can consider this post a long-overdue extension of the thinking there, however with a much-needed bump in production quality. In those old days, I hunched over a whiteboard with a collection of square tiles, creating six-second loops on the …
by natbanting
There is too much to like about Desmos. Really, though. The pace of innovation is gross. I am the first to admit that my sophistication with the platform is lagging behind the possibilities. I have never dabbled in Computation Layer, and I haven’t played with the Geometry. Part of my problem is the core team …
by natbanting
Much of what appears in mathematics textbooks is what I like to call, downstream thinking. Downstream thinking usually involves two features that set the stage for learners. First, it provides a context (however doctored or engineered–often referred to as “pseudo-context”). Second, the problem provides a pre-packaged algebraic model that is assumed to have arisen from …
by natbanting
After an emoji was named 2015 Oxford Dictionary word of the year, I am holding out hope for next years’ candidate: des-mo-si-fy /dez-MOH-suh-fahy/ verb 1. to transform the condition, nature, or character of a classroom activity using Desmos.
by natbanting
I always introduce linear functions with the idea of a growing pattern. Students are asked to describe growth in patterns of coloured squares, predict the values of future stages, and design their own patterns that grow linearly. Fawn’s VisualPatterns is a perfect tool for this. While stumbling around Visual Patterns with my Grade 9s, we …
by natbanting
I would like to begin with a conjecture: The amount of collective action in a learning system is inversely related to the possible degree of curricular specificity. The mathematical action of a group of learners centred on a particular task gives rise to a unique way of being with the problem, but also reinvents the …
Continue reading “On Collective Consciousness and Individual Epiphanies”