What I learned in class

I learned how the data can be misleading: the population density history of the United States has flat spots in 1850s, 1950s. Why does the population go down? Actually, it's the area of the US that's increasing due to acquiring new lands (eg, Louisiana Purchase, Alaska becoming a state).

I am dubious that I would use digital storytelling often in a math class. I think that it's more likely to be useful in a humanities or science class. The first application that jumps to mind would be historical information about a mathematician, but that seems like an unlikely event to occur often. Maybe the curriculum has changed, but I don't remember any historical information in my math classes in high school.

Application possibilities for the classroom include giving the students a dataset such as the draft numbers or population density and asking them "what's the story here?" Especially in society's onslaught of data, students need to be able to consume data intelligently, so I need to give them the tools to be able to do that. I need to teach the students how to find the answer to their questions, and how to develop critical thinking skills. Perhaps I could use a digital story to create a scenario with a problem and present it.

From Free Tech 4 Teachers: I loved the TED video about 100% of kids who don't eat the marshmallow within 15 minutes being successful 15 years later: the take-home message is if you can delay gratification, you can be successful in life. Adorable video of kids enjoying treats!