Technology provides maths for the masses

When Alexander Road High School mathematics teacher Dr Linda Emery started recording video lessons to provide supplementary learning for her pupils, she had no idea how handy they would be more than a decade later in the midst of the nationwide lockdown.

And now she says she wants to share her innovative approach to teaching with other less privileged schools.

Emery, 61, who has been teaching for 39 years, said the idea to record maths lessons was sparked in 2009 after the school’s mathematics department received sponsored computers and other technology.

Since then she has  been teaching with a Mimio pad connected to a computer and data projector.

And while she says at this stage she is unsure how to set up a platform that would be the most accessible to children who have limited facilities, she has requested principals or teachers who are interested in obtaining copies of the “hundreds” of videos to get in touch with her via Facebook.“This way I was able to record both video of my lessons and all the work I did so it made it much easier when children had missed lessons, or were absent or wanted to go over work again — they could be given a printout or they could watch the video,” Emery said.

She said subsequent to that, in 2012, she started teaching AP Maths (Advanced Programme Maths) and because many  children were unable to attend the lessons due to extramural involvement and other commitments, she would give them a recording.

“I started making workbooks (pamphlets that go with the recordings so that learners could fill in what they did on an outline as they watched the videos). 

“I also went through a time of Facebook groups for classes where I could post solutions and video, but when WhatsApp started I began having groups for each of my classes which means that I can post videos of lessons.”

Emery converts the videos to compress data. She can also respond to children’s queries.

Now in lockdown, she saysall maths classes at the school are on groups and are sharing the videos and worksheets that teachers set daily.

Each morning she posts an outline of what the children will be doing, a picture of exercises they need to do for homework, and pictures or videos of solutions to the previous day’s work, as needed.