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The PRAXIS Wisconsin Project is working to accommodate all these learning styles.
Through the project, students and faculty at UW System schools across the state, including the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, are developing digital learning objects or LOs.
An LO is a self-contained online application that will serve as a high-tech study guide for math and science questions on the PRAXIS II, an exam used as part of the teacher license certification process.
With the click of a button, students studying for the PRAXIS II will find various ways to understand a particular problem.
Each LO includes five main components:
“Our world is so multi-media these days. This gives them many ways to investigate a problem,” said Bob Hoar, a mathematics faculty member involved in the creation of LOs. “They can hear about it, watch the solution unfold or play around with the structure of the problem.”
The project has so far created 100 LOs, some of which still are in development. About half were created by UW-L teams.
In the future, LOs could be used in high schools to help students learn math and science, for students preparing to go to college or students returning to college who need a refresher before they enter a college-level math course, Hoar said.
Most of the students on the LO creation teams are planning to become K-12 teachers or college professors; however, participation is not restricted to these students, Hoar said.
The process of making LOs not only helps students prepare for PRAXIS but also has been a learning experience, said UW-L math education major Kelly Holmstadt.
The project challenges Holmstadt to think about what a particular problem is trying to measure and where students might go wrong in trying to solve it — both good skills for teachers to have, she said.
Plus, creating LOs also exposes Holmstadt to new technology she could encorporate when she’s a teacher, she said.
For instance, the chalk talk portion of the LO is teaching her how she could create her own podcasts, which would come in handy for teaching, she said.
“That’s one of the latest technologies professors are using, and it’s becoming popular on a lot of campuses,” said Holmstadt. “I could easily use that on my own now when I am teaching if I find students having trouble with a particular problem.”
KJ Lang can be reached at (608) 791-8226 or klang@lacrossetribune.com.
