I am sitting in Toby Beck’s NCCE session about MathCasting. He has students create screencasts in which they explain solutions to math problems. Teachers also create a full set of explanatory lessons for the curriculum. Students benefit by reflecting on their solutions so that they may explain them.
Toby uses OneNote and Jing, but this is similar to Darren Kuropatwa’s SmartBoard-based class blogs. One only needs a platform that can record student finger or pen input. I suspect that an iPad solution also exists. Both teachers suggest that students use images to apply mathematical concepts to real-world problems. Student blogs also serve as their electronic portfolios.
I am curious that this approach has gained some traction in mathematics. Perhaps there is something about this abstract subject that lends itself well to an explanatory medium.