NCTM Illuminations

A long-time favorite of mine when it comes to tech tools is the set of "Illuminations" from the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Illuminations are manipulatable java applets that bring abstract mathematical concepts to life. The catalog of tools is available at http://illuminations.nctm.org/, with lessons and all.



Illuminations benefit teachers in students in countless ways. From a teacher's standpoint, these are fantastic, ready made tools and lessons that save you tons of time. Creating manipulative-based lessons, as we all know, can really take forever. The benefits for efficiency here are huge.

But illuminations don't just save time- they offer bang for the buck. They make concrete concepts that have never been concrete before, allowing students an unprecedented learning experience. Students have a lesson truly enhanced by technology, able to do thing as never before and understand them in new and great ways.

NCTM Illuminations

Prezi

A great new tool I just discovered is a presentation tool called "Prezi" (www.prezi.com) that puts PowerPoint to shame. Prezi lets you make dymanic presentations that viewers can follow while still maintaining an idea of the "big picture." Watch a demonstration of Prezi here. Once you've been wowed by the demo, click here for a tutorial on how to make your own.
Prezi would make for a highly effective teaching tool. Typical presentation tools like PowerPoint only allow you to create linear presentations, but not all topics are linear! Students especially often lose track of "where they are" in a long presentation; they can't figure out how the current slide fits into the whole of the topic. They lose perspective. A presentation made with Prezi, that kept students perspective on the whole instead of the parts, would be effective in promoting retention of presented information.

Prezi