Technology gives us the ability to expand and enrich our maths, physics and STEM instruction by Interactive Visualizations and Explorations.
Technology provides additional opportunities for learners to see and interact with mathematical and physical concepts. Students can explore and make discoveries with games, simulations, and digital tools.
Multimedia have brought learning to life! With the aid of multimedia, we can now bring videos, animations, interesting movies, and other media into the learning process, something which we couldn’t even imagine when we were kids. This helps our students to deepen their knowledge in maths and physics and helps them develop their understandings. It also motivates and excites our students about their learning!
Making maths and physics (or STEM subjects) visual goes beyond student engagement. Brain research indicates it to be integral to learning math. Neuroscientists at Stanford University are studying how the brain thinks mathematically and evidence shows that visual pathways are involved even when working on symbolic number calculations. According to Jo Boaler and the team at Stanford Graduate School of Education’s you cubed, representing all mathematical concepts visually, and including visual activities at all grade levels, can greatly help students.
Online tutoring is an increasingly popular option for students, however many parents still wrestle with the question: “Is an online option right for my child’s learning and my family’s needs?” So we wanted to share some of the key benefits of online tutoring and why is it fast becoming the most viable method of learning outside the classroom.
1. More interaction and greater ability to concentrate
Studies show students are more likely to seek help online. Besides the logistics of arranging a face-to-face meeting with a tutor, there are other factors that may deter students from seeking help. In an independent study to explore the effect that a learning environment has on the behaviors of students, it was discovered that:
- Students prefer to seek help electronically from their teachers rather than meet in person;
- Students whose classes have a web component seek help more often than students in a traditional class with no web resource
- Students report that they feel less threatened to seek help using an electronic system
While contradictory evidence about the rate of online student participation versus participation in traditional courses exists, one thing remains certain: Online courses offer shy or more reticent students the opportunity to participate in class discussions more easily than face-to-face class sessions. Some students even report better concentration in online classes due to the lack of classroom activity.
2. More comfortable learning environment
Commercials that feature online students studying in their pyjamas only skims the surface of one of the benefits of online education: no physical class sessions. Students listen to lectures and complete assignments sent to them electronically, with no need to fight traffic, leave work early for class, or miss important family time.
Students have conveyed that interaction with a tutor over the Internet is less frightening than when the tutor is physically present. Similarly, they are also more at ease asking a tutor questions they would not ask in school in the presence of their peers.
3. Convenience and flexibility
Online courses give students the opportunity to plan study time around the rest of their day, instead of the other way around. Students can study and work at their convenience. Course material is always accessible online, making special library trips unnecessary. All of these benefits help students balance work and family commitments with their education.
Unlike classroom teaching, with online learning, you can access the content an unlimited number of times. This is especially required at the time of revision when preparing for an exam. In the traditional form of learning, if you can not attend the lecture, then you have to prepare for that topic on your own; in eLearning, you can attend the lectures whenever you want with ease.
4. The human touch
The ability to work with a tutor to apply one-to-one learning to their study improves educational outcomes significantly more than watching YouTube videos or working through online worksheets. Human tutors are also more adept at encouraging, motivating, and empathizing with students than even the most sophisticated computer-based intelligent tutoring systems