Resources for Best Practice
There are many practitioners who have successfully incorporated multimedia into their repertoire of tools that can be used in education. On this page, we have given links to some good resources that can be used at the upper secondary and undergraduate levels. They are not examples of people successfully using multimedia, although these can be found through an internet search. The examples below have been categorised into visual support for learning, instructional videos and student assisted learning.
Instructional Videos
There are many good quality videos on YouTube – the problem is separating the good from the bad. This can be a time consuming task, but some good starting points are YouTube For Schools and YouTube EDU. Kahn Academy has 3200 instructional videos covering a wide range of topics in mathematics (and other subject areas) and can be accessed on YouTube, or you can register with Khan Academy to access the videos. A wide range of instructional videos are available. Specific topics can be searched for readily. Mathscasts is a project embarked upon by a collaboration of universities: Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, The University of Limerick in Ireland and Loughborough University in the UK. The site contains a comprehensive list of short videos on maths topics covering algebra, functions, differentiation, ordinary differential equations, discrete maths, vectors, matrices, 3D surfaces, complex numbers, curves, trigonometry, number systems, equations, inequalities and integration. Unfortunately there is no search facility at the site so you have to rely on doing a keyword search of the page. The site is geared towards tertiary maths, but contains support materials for students without a strong background in maths. Thus it is suitable for secondary level as well. New videos are constantly being added to the site. All videos are vetted for quality and relevance, so you are assured of a useful resource here. |
Visual Support to Learning
An excellent source for visual representation can be found at http://stewartcalculus.com/tec, which is the companion website for the textbook Calculus (and other derivatives of this book) by James Stewart. The site contains animations on topics including functions, differentiation, integration, differential equations, infinite sequences and series, partial derivatives, multiple integration and vectors. There are two types of resources there: visual animations that can be used for visual representation of concepts; and investigations for students to explore concepts in a visually dynamic environment. The site is that it is closely linked to textbook, as it has been designed to support the book. Thus it is advantageous if that textbook is the set text for a course. However, the Web site is freely available and can be used independently of the book and does not require a special code to access. |
Student Assisted Learning
The Khan Academy has a mission to provide free education of world-class quality. Students can practice maths skills there and are given assistance when they have difficulty. This interactive environment can give students instant feedback on their progress. Many textbooks are supported by a web site and many books also incorporate a homework assisting and monitoring facility. These are usually provided at a cost to students or departments. James Stewart’s companion web site for his book Calculus (and other derivatives of this book) provides homework hints for problems from the textbook at no further charge. These can be found at http://stewartcalculus.com/tec. |