Educreations + Edmodo + Google Maps = Awesome Student Collaboration + Work + Metacognition

Here's a recent math lesson I did with my kids about rates and my awesome Spring Break trip. My husband and I were lucky to travel to Maui for Spring Break. As it was our first time we didn't realize how amazing the island would be... nor how exhausting sitting on a plane for almost 10 hours would be. On the way home, we started talking in the TSA line with another family about planes that could get us there faster, burning gas and rates. While we chatted, I thought to myself, "Hmmm... my kids could figure this out." So this week, when I returned, I gave my students this problem:

(Note: I wanted to be like Dan Meyer and just take a picture of my ticket stub or online confirmation to make the experience more authentic, but couldn't seem to get it together in time. Had I thought of this ahead of time, I would have most likely taken a picture of myself with my cell phone clock up when we took off, then done the same when we landed so the kids could see the elapsed time... then they could have even figured out the time zone difference! Darn! Next time....)

After taking a look at the problem (and hearing my sob story about being on the plane sooooo long to get to paradise) they had a silent discussion on Edmodo to share their problem solving ideas. Take note that the students' comments show up simultaneously at times, depending on when they hit "submit." So one student may respond before they notice someone else responded to them.

Then they opened the app Educreations and used it to record themselves solving the problem.

Finally, they shared their Educreation for the world to view! By watching this student's video, I was able to see that while she understood how to find the rate, she didn't quite understand its meaning (miles per hour). Had I just seen her answer, I may not have known this. By watching the video, and looking at the Edmodo chat stream, I had a much better assessment of what she did and did not know to inform future instruction.

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