http://computerchalk.com Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:01:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://computerchalk.com/pizzas-and-pies-and-fractions-oh-my http://computerchalk.com/pizzas-and-pies-and-fractions-oh-my#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:16:13 +0000 Marg http://computerchalk.com/?p=1387 Another Way to Teach Fractions Fractions have an unenviable reputation of being difficult to teach.  Although most students have extensive practice shading in parts of a rectangle and counting pieces of pie, many students still lack a conceptual knowledge of fractions. In a multiple choice question asking Year 9 students to estimate the nearest correct [...]]]> http://computerchalk.com/pizzas-and-pies-and-fractions-oh-my/feed 0 http://computerchalk.com/intelligent-thinking http://computerchalk.com/intelligent-thinking#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:01:07 +0000 Marg http://computerchalk.com/?p=1337 If we could develop artificial intelligence that mimics how our brains seems to work, would we understand the brain better?  Jeff Hawkins is passionate in his conviction that AI will help us understand the brain, and has developed a model for how the brain works which he has called Hierarchical Temporal Memory. Although the name [...]]]> http://computerchalk.com/intelligent-thinking/feed 0 http://computerchalk.com/scratch-programming-fun http://computerchalk.com/scratch-programming-fun#comments Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:29:05 +0000 Marg http://computerchalk.com/?p=1247 While it’s often assumed that programming is difficult to learn,  many  8 to 14 year olds are now learning programming skills using a specially designed programming tool  developed at MIT  called Scratch.  Scratch is a free program that runs on Mac, Windows and Linux. First released in 2007, it now has an extensive following of [...]]]> http://computerchalk.com/scratch-programming-fun/feed 0 http://computerchalk.com/why-dont-students-like-school http://computerchalk.com/why-dont-students-like-school#comments Wed, 04 May 2011 08:22:03 +0000 Marg http://computerchalk.com/?p=1201 The title of this excellent book is perhaps a little misleading – there’s not much in it about why students don’t like school; it’s actually a concise list of nine principles about how the brain learns that can be applied in the classroom by cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham.  The result is a practical and easily [...]]]> http://computerchalk.com/why-dont-students-like-school/feed 2 http://computerchalk.com/monster-problem-for-working-memory http://computerchalk.com/monster-problem-for-working-memory#comments Sat, 12 Mar 2011 06:13:24 +0000 Marg http://computerchalk.com/?p=1083 The following problem1 demonstrates the impact of working memory limitations on processing information. Although there is no difficult conceptual thinking required to solve the problem, it has been reported that most university students require about 30 minutes to find the solution. Three monsters, one small, one medium and one large, were each holding a globe. [...]]]> http://computerchalk.com/monster-problem-for-working-memory/feed 2