I saw that on a Numberphile video...

Last week, I was listening to a couple of year 7s discussing maths in class when I heard one of them say, "I saw that on a Numberphile video..." This was one of the highlights of my term because the video in question was not one I had promoted to the class. This term, I have introduced Google Classroom into my teaching and one of the excellent uses is to subtly promote Numberphile and other fantastic mathematical resources.

I'm going to go out on a limb here. I think Numberphile is the most inspirational resource I have seen for Mathematics. By using youtube, Numberphile has opened the door to complex Maths that to this point remained hidden deep and difficult to find for the vast majority of people. It is ground-breaking and has the potential to be as influential  as Martin Gardner's work in bringing maths to the masses and deepening understanding of Mathematics beyond basic numeracy. It goes way beyond other attempts to open up mathematics, such as Johnny Ball in the UK, who promoted mathematics in an entertaining manner, but failed to look deeply and demystify the subject. Numberphile embraces the complexity of mathematics and challenges the grey cells, and with the creation of Numberphile 2 (with its focus on the 'hard' maths) this looks to continue strongly.

A big thank you to Brady Haran (producer, editor and thoughtful interviewer of the Numberphile videos) and the inspirational contributors, including the fantastic and amusing Dr James Grime and Matt Parker (two of the main contributors to the channel). Dr James Grime has his own youtube channel singingbanana, which is full of mathematical gems. Matt Parker has been touring the country with the best show ever, Festival of the Spoken Nerd, his talk on spreadsheets zooms into the heart of computing and mathematics.

Other excellent youtube channels for maths include:
Vi Hart
Smarter Every Day (although there is some Science in this one as well!)

Khan Academy

I used Khan Academy for the first time with one of my teaching groups today. I have previously explored Khan Academy, from a student's point of view, trying out different tasks etc (I would strongly advise you do this before hand) and felt the time was now right to become a 'coach' and investigate its usefulness within the classroom. 

The group I chose was a GCSE retake group. I had managed to permanently book an IT room for once a week with this group and this made an opportune moment to experiment. I was pleasantly surprised how well the lesson went. It was very easy to set up a Khan Academy Classroom. I had already established a Google Classroom, so I highlighted every student and clicked to email them, then copied their email addresses and pasted this into Khan Academy. It took a couple of minutes to create a classroom and then for students to join by clicking the link sent to them via email.. 

I didn't set up any particular tasks or missions but invited the class to focus on the foundation area of Mathematics. With little instruction, students were quickly able to complete tasks. They became motivated by the points and awards. Soon this became competitive with some students. All students engaged and were on task. Students began asking for help when needed - I haven't yet started emphasising the online video support, but will start doing that from next lesson. Some students who had been less motivated suddenly started working very well. The class lost track of time and worked into their break time and at the end of the day, a student emailed to see if he was number one (as he had been working on tasks during his lunchtime). I will see if this level of enthusiasm persists. Students seem to enjoy not only the competitive side but the independence Khan Academy gave them.

The data on students and classes is very useful. Progress of the class is easily monitored time and this can be varied. Putting a leader-board on the interactive whiteboard inspired some students to be competitive - students worked hard to be at the top and to avoid the bottom place. Individual data was also useful to see where students were struggling and also what they were able to do. Generally, I think students found it motivating that they were able to complete easier tasks, but this will need to be monitored to ensure they can complete more complex tasks needed for their examinations.

My next step is to create a playlist of topics that will be suitable for my students and enable me to focus their attention on particular units. I have quickly set up Khan Academy Classrooms for my other groups, but are not planning to use it within the classroom, but to encourage them to practise their maths skills in their own time. I will be curious to see how it will work in this context.

Khan Academy provides clear and comprehensive support for teachers to help them on this journey - Khan Academy Support Materials