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WebALT Online Courses and Joining Educational Mathematics Network

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In this talk we describe the WebALT concept for teaching mathematics online. The WebALT content enhances printed text books by offering high quality automatically assessed exercises of which most come with complete detailed solutions. The WebALT laboratories allow students to experiment with mathematical concepts. A part of the WebALT content is encoded using a special XML grammar which enriches the content so that it can automatically be generated in several languages including English and Spanish.

WebALT materials support complete virtual courses in which all the activities, save formal examinations, happen on he web. The WebALT online courses implement John Keller?s ARCS model. Laboratories and short Ten Minute Talks capture students? ATTENTION. Solved problems show the RELEVANCE of the materials to the students. Practicing with solved, unsolved, and with automatically graded homework, gives students CONFIDENCE. Taking a test associated to each learning unit, the students get SATISFACTION for knowing that they have mastered the content. The WebALT content is designed to be accessible by video iPods and new handheld internet devices. Lectures are offered as podcasts viewable also with computers.
Automatically graded homework can be turned in using an iPod Touch, an iPhone or an similar small device.
The WebALT courses run also in virtual class rooms in Second Life. Teaching in virtual realities such as Second Life has a lot of potential in the near future as kids who today spend a big part of their time playing virtual reality internet games start studying at universities and colleges.

The Joining Educational Mathematics (JEM) Thematic Network is supported by the European Commission. The network has 20 institutional members representing either directly or indirectly all European Union countries. The purpose of the JEM Network is to advance the use of information technology in mathematics education world wide with a special focus to Europe. The JEM portal is the main source
of information of JEM activities. The portal is a meeting place for people interested in the use of technology in mathematics education.

Author(s): 
Olga Caprotti and Mika Seppala and Matti Pauna
Publication_details: 
ICTCM 2008 - 7-8 March 2008, San Antonio, TX.
Tyyppi: 
Slide presentation
Päivämäärä: 
2008/03/08
Partner_node: 
Helsingin Yliopisto
LiiteKoko
ICTCM_OC_2008.pdf8.06 Mt