RebelMaths

Domino logic Gates: A hands on lesson on boolean logic One of my favourite classes this year was one where we built domino Logic gates. We were seven weeks into a first year maths course for computer science students. We had been working through sets  then algebra and then Boolean Algebra. Each week we had one three hour lecture (horrific, right). In the seventh week there was the first in class test for the module and I knew that the students were going to be tired after doing the test and I needed to keep it "light" somehow for the remainder of the three hour period. I was also working with these same students in a module called Effective Learning and Development and from discussion in that module I knew that a few of the learners were the type of learner that liked to move and do hands on work (there was a time that I would have said they were learners with a kinesthetic learning style but I know that is all out of vogue at the moment). I had been thinking of ways to t

Google Classroom as a great alternative to Moodle or Blackboard Google classroom was a total unknown to me up to a few weeks ago. I had heard it mentioned at the occasional conference but I had never looked any further into it. I always had either Moodle or Blackboard to use as a VLE so I didn't look into the alternatives. However, a few weeks ago I started a short course with students who were attempting to qualify to enter college and so did not have access to the college's main blackboard system. I find it very wasteful to print of reams of notes that probably end up in the bin and asking students to take down loads of notes seems like wasting time to me. I decided to look into what free system I could use that would be fairly straightforward for myself and the students. And so I started looking into google classroom. It only took me about 20 minutes to go from looking it up to actually having a classroom up and running. I was delighted with how simple it was to get

5 reasons to use the Numbas e-assessment system for Mathematics   I first learned about Numbas when Julie Crowley approached me in 2015 to do some work as project  assistant   for the teame (Transitioning to E-Assessment in Mathematics Education) Project. My first job was to test the existing questions that had been developed for use in two Cork HE Institutions. After that we did a lot of work on making it easier for other institutions to use the resources we had developed. We wrote an implementation guide  and tried to spread the word on how well this system can work. Numbas is a freely available e-assessment system for Mathematics that has been developed in Newcastle University. The Numbas system has a proven track record and a strong reputation (B. Foster 2012) and (Perfect 2015). It has been used in Cork Institute of Technology and University College Cork as well as at  Newcastle University (B. Foster 2012) , University of Leicester, and Kingston University, London (D