Submission of Group Project

Project Team: Karen Lee Sau Wah, Jaco Cheung Chun Kay

Project Title: Reduced Bearing

Software used: Flash MX

Role and responsibilities:
Karen and I contributed equally in our group project. We worked on different parts of the project. Then we checked each other's work and discussed how to improve as a whole via emails. Finally, we merged the different parts together and got the final version.

Links for the files of this project:
http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/ckcheung5/final_01.fla
http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/ckcheung5/final_01.swf

(For your interest, the answers for the application section are as follows:
Swimming pool: N 39 degrees E
Church: S 62 degrees E
Library: S 50 degrees W

Playground: N 25 degrees W)

Direction is one of the basic techniques of map reading in Form 1 Geography & Integrated Humanities. Students must learn 'compass points', 'whole circle bearing' and 'reduced bearing'. Usually, students know 'compass points' well in their daily life. They can apply 'whole circle bearing' easily. However, it is difficult for them to remember what the reduced bearing is and how it is expressed. Some students measure the direction not only from the north or south, but also from the east or west for reduced bearing. Some even think that the angles can be larger than 90 degrees.

To cope with the above-mentioned misconceptions, our group has designed a learning object to help students learn reduced bearing and make recall easier. According to Daniel (2006), our learning object is classified as a conceptual model.

In traditional teacher-centred approach, students are passively informed of what reduced bearing is and how to express directions in reduced bearing. But in our 'Task' section, students are required to explore how the direction is expressed in reduced bearing on their own by dragging a slider. According to dual coding theory (Clark & Paivio, 1991; Paivio, 1986) and multimedia learning hypothesis (Mayer, 2005), students are expected to simultaneously combine the motion of the pointer X and the reduced bearing of X from O to make a connection between them. To accommodate individual differences, buttons of 'instruction' and 'conclusion' are provided for students to check for hints or conclusion.

In the application section, students are required to choose an item (swimming pool, church, library, or playground). A red line will be drawn and linked from home (O) to the chosen item. Then students are required to observe the angle shown on the protractor, and input the reduced bearing in correct format in the boxes provided. After they have clicked the 'check' button, feedback is provided to direct their further action. As recreational computer games may have a role to play in enhancing cognitive skills and processes that apply in educational situations (Pillay, Brownlee & Wilss, 1999), the gaming feature of this application can foster students' interaction, increase their involvement and lengthen their contact periods with a learning activity (Polonoli, 2000). It is hoped that this simple application can help students consolidate what they have just learnt.

As reduced bearing is a topic in trigonometry in Form 3 Mathematics, this learning object can be reused in Form 3 as well. Students can also use this learning object for concept recall at home. As a learning object which is best described as a technology-based and psychological tool can mediate a learning activity through perception, consciousness and psychological processes (Churchill, 2005), we believe that students can have a deeper impression on how to express reduced bearing and what it is if they can explore it by observation (perception), draw the conclusion themselves (consciousness) and practise more with application (psychological processes).

References:
Clark, J.M. & Paivio, A. (1991). Dual coding theory and education. Education Psychology Review, 3, 149-210.

Churchill, D. (2005). Learning object: an interactive representation and a mediating tool in a learning activity. Educational Media International, 42 (4), 333–349.

Churchill, D. (2006). Towards a useful classification of learning objects. Educational Technology Research and Development.

Ip, K.W., Lam, C.C. &Wong, K.F. (2003). Exploring Geography Book 1A (2nd Edition). Oxford University Press (China) Ltd.

Mayer, R.E. (2005). The Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press

Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representations; A dual-coding Approach. Oxford University Press, Oxford, England.

Pillay, H., Brownlee, J., & Wilss, L. (1999). Cognition and recreational computer games: Implications for educational technology. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 32(1), 203-217.

Polonoli, Keith E. (2000). What makes educational software educational? Virginia Society of Technology in Education Journal, 15(1), 6-31.

Learning through Blogging

At first, I did not know I could upload video and swf file onto the blogs. But I found that some classmates were able to do so in their blogs. This gave me a motivation to learn how to do so. In fact, I did not ask for classmates' help, but I searched through the Internet to see if there were some postings about uploading video or swf file onto the blogs. Finally, I managed to do so. Even though I did not talk to any classmates face to face, I still could learn something and draw some inspirations from reading their blogs.

By reading classmates' blogs for prototype presentations, I found that some groups had employed hotspot with close buttons. I found that this idea was great as this prevented the hotspot from disappearing if readers accidentally moved the mouse away. Therefore, my group has also included close buttons for the hotspots in the final version.

Here is one more example of learning from peers through blogging. It is interested to learn the mouseover effect in the powerpoint from the raindrop task of Martin and Dorothy's group. This mouseover technique in powerpoint can make the presentation more interesting and appealing. Besides using interactive buttons, the mouseover effect can enhance another kind of interactivity between readers and the visual display. Please click the following link to see my trial on the mouseover effect in powerpoint.

http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1374/users/ckcheung5/storyboardwmouseover.ppt

Mathematics and Visual Representation

Being a textbook editor for mathematics, I find that more and more diagrams and visual display of mathematics concepts can be found in mathematics textbooks in Hong Kong while the length of paragraphs is shortened. It seems that textbook editors implicitly agree with Tufte (1983) that visuals can communicate complex ideas with clarity, precision, efficiency and convey the most knowledge in the shortest time in the small space. From my experience, because of the diversity of learner differences in Chinese and English languages, simple and clear annotated visual representation of information can help explain mathematics concepts.

For example, when the method of completing the square is introduced, some students do not understand why the process of completing the square works even after teachers have explained the algebraic proof (e.g. http://students.ou.edu/H/Layla.Hayavi-1/Episode%202.html). Teachers can try to help students visualize the algebraic proof by providing the corresponding geometry proof.

From: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Al-Khwarizmi.html

An interactive geometric proof can be found at http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=132. The visualization can help students see the unseen and enhance better understanding (Arcavi, 2003). Teachers can also use this example to let students know that in mathematics, one can sometimes find more than one method to solve a question.

Another example is the visual representation for sum to infinity of geometric series. See the following two GP sum. With these visual representations of proofs without words, students should be able to 'see' what the sum to infinity of geometric series on the left hand side of the equality sign represents.

From: http://www.mathland.idv.tw/


In these examples, diagrams group together all the information necessary for explaining certain mathematics concepts so that students would not be distracted by unnecessary information during learning (Larkin & Simon, 1987). However, how to prepare a good visual representation is really another issue for study.

References:

Arcavi, A. (2003). The role of visual representation in the learning of mathematics. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 52(2003), 215-241.

Lakin, J.H. & Simon H.A. (1987). Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words. Cognitive Science, 11(1987), 65-99.

Tufte, E. R. (1983). The visual display of quantitative information. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press.

Learning Photostory

In the photostory task, I use the digital photostory to explore a certain mathematical theorem using a mathematical freeware called Wingeom. At the same time, basic skills of using Wingeom are introduced. The reason I choose this topic is that I want to see if it is possible to employ the digital photostory to teach new colleagues how to use some mathematical software.

I have sent my product to some junior colleagues for study. Their feedbacks are positive. An suggestion is that they sometimes feel dizzy as the screens are often zoomed in and out alternatively. I need to note this point in the future even if I want to make the screen as large as possible so that they are clear enough to be seen. I also learn from Martin that there is a freeware called Wink which can make Captivate-like tutorials. Really a good news to me.

Learning Flash

Before enrolled in this module, I was a complete novice for Flash. After this module, I can definitely say that I have learnt some basic skills of using Flash, and am able to prepare simple interactivity using buttons, sliders and hotspots.

At the early stage of planning the group assignment, I held an idea of using (advanced) actionscripts to finish the group project. It was because I found some books about actionscripts in Flash in public library and thought that I could finish the group project without difficulty if I knew how to write actionscripts. But later I found it difficult to learn the required actionscripts in a shorter period of time.

By looking at Daniel's demonstration of moving a pointer using a slider and the tutorial video part 4 about the changing colours of clothes, I changed my mind completely. I started to explore if I could finish the project with simple techniques that I have already learnt in this module. In the former case, I learnt how to include 360 keyframes for the pointer and I could finally easily move the pointer through one revolution with the help of a slider. In the latter case, I learnt how to use the 'tellTarget' action to show the desired reduced bearing. Therefore, I found that 'keeping something simple and smart' could give me some ideas of finding solutions.

With some hands-on experience of using Flash, I know more about the concept of 'layers'. For example, in my trial version on using a slider to drag the pointer to move along a circular path, initially I put the textbox inside the slider layer so that the textbox moved as long the slider moved. The problem was finally fixed as I moved the textbox to an appropriate layer. I really enjoy learning and using Flash now.

Further Improvement of the Prototpye

Besides using a slider to drag the pointer, some other points of improvement of the prototype are listed below.

1) Use a simpler protractor. The size of the protractor should be as large as possible so that users can easily observe the angle.

2) Double check if some lines are straight or not.

3) Delete the line showing the abbreviations for N, S, W & E at the bottom as such information can be introduced by teachers during class.

4) Should let users know where the hotspot areas are.

Session 10 Reflection

After looking at the comments provided by the classmates in my teammate Karen's blog and my blog, I discuss with Karen in this session how to make changes with reference to the comments. The main conclusions are as follows:

1) The message that a slider is better than buttons is found in most of the comments. Karen and I also agree with this. My group has solved the technical problems of using a slider to drag the pointer. I have also posted a slider version on my blog for reference. In this slider version, one can freely drag the pointer to any position on a desired path and the pointer can move faster than in the button version.

2) Karen and I will discuss the possibility of inputting the bearing in the assignment. Technical skills are one big concern. Another concern is how to fine tune my group's learning objectives of using this representation and the structure of the product if users can input the bearings as well.

3) As mentioned in the post titled 'Follow-up on Storyboard' in Daniel's blog, visual and interactive representations are not drill and practice, quiz questions, tests or games, and they are resources too. Therefore, we may not include some questions for students to answer or discuss. In fact, teachers can include these questions in worksheets and distribute to students together with the use of this visual representation.