ITSCoRe at the 2018 RUME Conference: Let’s provide opportunities for students to engage in covariational reasoning
Date: Friday, February 23
Time: 9:20-9:50, PST
Location: Coronado Room, Kona Kai Resort, San Diego
Networking Theories to Design Dynamic Covariation Techtivities for College Algebra Students
Heather Johnson, Evan McClintock, Jeremiah Kalir, Gary Olson, University of Colorado Denver
We share our work to develop opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in covariational reasoning.
Building from the work of mathematics education researchers (e.g., Kaput, Thompson, Moore), we developed a suite of Techtivities—free, accessible, digital media activities linking dynamic animations and graphs.
Using a Cannon Man Techtivity to illustrate, we provide four key design components and three theoretically based design principles underlying the Techtivities.
To inform design both within and across the Techtivities, we networked theories of different grain sizes: Thompson’s theory of quantitative reasoning and Marton’s variation theory.
Developing Techtivities for students in the gatekeeping course, College Algebra, we intend to expand students’ opportunities to employ covariational reasoning.
We discuss implications stemming from students’ opportunities to use free, accessible digital media activites, such as Techtivities, to promote their covariational reasoning.
