Susan Jones
Parkland College Academic Development Specialist
Illinois
I come from a background teaching bright students with language learning disorders at The New Community School (http://www.tncs.org ) in Richmond, Virginia.
I work with students in a community college setting where many come from special ed placement. I believe interactive, adaptive visual experiences can be designed to bridge understanding from concrete to abstract and make math cognitively accessible to students who struggle to make sense of the language of math. I've seen aspects of gamification in programs such as ALEKS motivate students, but feel that the actual instruction materials could be vastly improved as they focus on procedural knowledge. (Fortunately, Parkland College uses blended learning and concepts are stressed in classroom instruction.)
I dabble in designing blended learning experiences so that older learners can learn -- and understand -- math, despite experiences which have led them to believe that math is to be avoided (or, if necessary, survived). I've even made an android app because we have a class for that :)
I made a video of what each activity does here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPXq89p6dtI and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSXkyjisZQs and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b-8DD829RI
… but the actual app is testable at https://play.google.com/apps/testing/net.resourceroom.auntjamesintegers